No Longer Care
by Sairey13
Summary: Why am I still here? A better question, why do I keep living? To me, my life is pointless. I no longer see the joy on living, and yet, I keep on fighting and living. Why is that?... Is it because of that promise I made to my deceased family on their grave? The vow I made to Bruce while pledging to the side of good? Or is it something else?... Which should I choose: Life or Death?
1. Lost Boy & Searching Father

**Dick's POV**  
The city's a complete mess and it doesn't seem to be getting any better at all, not in the very least, no matter how much I try to keep peace into the city or how many bad guys I would stop and capture. Nothing seems to stop the crime rates rising or preventing the number of people dying because of the villains I've faced would use them as bait or just felt like killing so they can get me and try to kill me.

It never gotten any easier throughout most of my life and with the police from both Gotham and Blüdhaven becoming completely useless on keeping the bad guys in jail or in the Asylum for so long, it just seems so pointless to continue on with this crime-fighting gig. It seems that the more we fight to save lives or to take down criminals, the more villains will keep on popping out of nowhere and a whole lot more worse both cities would be in.

I still want to keep fighting and I don't plan on giving up, but at times I feel like I should just quit and simply hide within the shadows forever, to only become a simple memory to the people who've trusted me to protect them and to those who I fought along side with...

I became more tired now and my body would at times feel like it's trying to shut itself down whenever I would return home with new wounds to be imprinted forever onto my skin, so that I would fall into a sleep that I may no longer be able to awake and fight another day in order to heal... I don't think I can truly heal anymore, because I've been collecting more scars than usual and I've already been near the Path of Death much more often.

I didn't call and told Barbara about it, nor did I told the Team from Mount Justice, the Justice League at the Watchtower or bother to inform Alfred and the others back at the Manor about my problem. It wasn't my place to bring one of my problems up and have them waste their time feeling sorry or trying to help me. Besides, they all have their problems to worry about, already.

Wally still needs to get used to living with his aunt and uncle in Central City, without having to be afraid or to even flinch away from a hand being raised to simply pat him on either the back, shoulder or head, or hold him in comfort.  
Barry and Iris had recently found out that his father, Rudy West, has been abusing Wally for nearly three years ever since the death of Mary West, Rudy's wife, when Wally was nine. Barry and Iris immediately gained full custody of Wally when he was almost twelve years old and Rudy had been taken to prison for Child Abuse and Illegal Drug-Use, with no chance whatsoever on ever getting Wally back but a possible chance on parole if he gets over his drug and anger-problems.  
Even when already at the age of nineteen and is part of the Justice League, Wally still has problem with physical-contact by adults, though he's always fine with being hugged by his friends or other young people and with the help of Artemis, he's making a great effort.

Roy, at the age of twenty-one, had to take care of his two year-old daughter, Lian Gwen Harper, and find a safe place to keep her safe, along with finishing with his quitting on drugs. So far, from what I heard, he and Lian are staying with Ollie and Dinah in Star City.  
According to what Artemis had told me, when she came to visit me in Blüdhaven, Roy has been doing very well. In fact, he was finally rid of his addiction, thanks to Dinah's therapy session and counseling, and had decided to move back to Ollie's again.  
Cheshire, once again, left him to do some undercover work for the League, but had claimed she would be checking in on Roy and Lian from time to time until her work is over. Despite her having a criminal record, she's really making an effort on changing and working for good instead of evil like her father wants her and Artemis to do.

Kaldur and Raquel, who're both over the age of eighteen and Raquel had just turned nineteen, are part of the Justice League. They're also happily married and are already raising a child together, with a second on the way.  
Since Raquel isn't an Atlantean like Kaldur, she and their son had to live at Mount Justice to stay near the ocean and the land in order for them to still make contacts to their family from the land and sea, along with staying together. Because they're living at Mount Justice, they both had to take care of their son and train the team, along with having to go to different jobs in Atlantis or Happy Harbor and doing League Missions, which meant less sleep and family time for them all and having another child on the way was making it even more difficult.

M'gann and Conner, who also lived at Mount Justice, were also married and have a child together and are planning on having another, just like Kaldur and Raquel. Though they were given invitations on becoming League Members and are starting their twenties, they both chose to remain as Young Justice Members until Artemis graduates from high school and becomes a Justice League member, herself. Only then, will they join the Justice League.  
The good part on staying and living at Mount Justice, there are always other team mates to stay and keep them company. The down part, however, are the noises and how the food would be more than half gone. And with too much noises, along with Super-Hearing in the mixture, Conner had been trying to control his anger from the multiple headaches and M'gann had been training their son into controlling his Martian Powers, which has the three of them to leave the cave to get away from the distractions until Conner's headache is gone or when they had to go back for a mission.

Wolf and Sphere, who still stays with the Team, had both changed a lot. Wolf has grown so much and is so big, that he looks like he could carry two or three of us on his back with no problem, whatsoever. Anyway, he's been leaving the cave for most of the day, probably looking for a mate to have his own pups with since he would at times watch over both of the boys and treat them as his own.  
While Sphere simply stays put in the garage, as she usually does, and tries to morph into different battle modes for missions. Icon and Atom would come by to the mountain to upgrades her systems and improve her fighting tactics, which seems to be getting better and better the more Sphere morphs.

Artemis and her mother, Paula, were thinking about moving to Star City once Artemis graduates from Gotham Academy at Gotham. Turns out Gotham's becoming a major problem for Paula and even with Batman and the Bat-Family keeping the city safe, while Artemis would use the Zeta-Beam to head for Star City to help both Green and Red Arrow, it seems to be the only place that Paula could feel secure in and for Artemis to continue on as Green Arrow's partner. Artemis didn't seem thrilled about the decision, but she wasn't planning on leaving her mother or quit being Ollie's partner... Not yet, to be exact.  
Since she's already at the age of eighteen and is known to be an adult, though a lot of people said that young people needs to be twenty years old to become true full grown-ups, she and Wally were thinking about moving into Mount Justice with the rest of their friends once they become Justice League Members. Until then, Artemis chose to remain with her mother to help take care of her.

Zatanna, whose going to turn eighteen within another year and will soon join the League, had moved out of the cave. A few years back, when she was fifteen, she was able to get through to Doctor Fate about her father and after having a discussion with Zatara, they all came up with an agreement that seems to be satisfying to the three of them: Fate will come out for League Missions or when danger were to come, while allowing Zatara to be with his daughter until the Magician could find another host, and only then would Nabu permanently release Zatara from his hold and his fate on being Doctor Fate's host. Until that time were to come, Zatanna and Zatara had to deal with their little agreement.  
Because she has her father back into her life, Zatanna moved out of Mount Justice to live with her father again, though she promised to come by and visit, along with staying the night or two with the Team at the cave. However, she doesn't hang out much or stay for very long, since she would leave to find a great sorcerer to take her father's place to be Doctor Fate.  
She grew so obsessed on wanting to have her father all the time and not switch or leave into Doctor Fate, she barely gave any thought on asking her Hero-Family for help or to think that her absence was causing a few Team and League Members to missing her company very badly.

The Team don't need to have my problems to add on to their 'List of Problems' and the League don't need any more screwed-up heroes to be added to their list... Especially Batman, since he had to work as Bruce Wayne in the day and the Dark Knight at night. He already has other Birds and Bats to train, who're all my adoptive older-siblings, and having to hear problems in Blüdhaven will just make things worse for him.

He most likely hadn't forgiven me from leaving home at the age of fourteen, but he and everybody of the Team and League had been smothering me so much and with having new older-siblings to come and join the hero business too, which also made them overprotective of me like the rest of the Team, I couldn't stand being there to only be pushed aside by the older teens or to have my ear talked off by a bunch of list of complaints for the wrong-things that had happened during fights or on Missions from Bruce. I haven't heard from him lately, even though I cut myself off from the rest of the world outside of Blüdhaven. The only ones who know where I am at the moment are Artemis and Wally.

Despite the numbers of problem this city has, Blüdhaven is basically the only city that I can stay in and stay hidden from Bruce and the rest of my Hero-Family. I simply come and go whenever there is major danger in Gotham or at the cave, but I made sure to not leave any traces behind that would lead them to where I'm at, knowing that Bruce and my siblings will try and find me if they found even one single clue to where I'm living.

I have four brothers and two sisters, with Barbara and Kate also being my older sisters but not adopted by Bruce, all older than me and most of them already in their twenties and all of them over the age of eighteen, which makes them Justice League Members, too.  
I only knew Tim and Jason, the two youngest older-brothers of the group, before I ran away at the age of fourteen. I then met Damian, Stephanie, Cassandra and Terry when coming to the rescue to stop Klarion from having and controlling Etrigan to kill Jason Blood, whose a friend of Bruce, when I was fifteen.  
Since then, I would be going back and forth to help out or to check up on my family until I recently found out one of my siblings, or possibly Bruce, had implanted a tracer on my back and tried to follow me in order to talk me into coming back home or slow me down and drag me back to Gotham. Ever since that incident, I quit coming over to help out or to check up on the Bat-Family and remained in my own city.

During my two years in Blüdhaven as Nightwing at the age of fourteen, I quit coming to the rescue for the Team or the League, but only for my Bat-Family until they betrayed my trust, and had remained within the Sister City of Gotham for those two years. I can no longer remember the good times I had in the Past and even forgot on why I wanted to keep fighting.

My home that I'm living in is just an abandon apartment and my own base is just a hidden lair within the sewers underneath my house: no endless supplies of weapons in case I run out, only a couple of souvenirs I got from the villains or burglars; I don't even have my own ride to cruise around the city in if I were to loose or break all of my grapple guns, which I took with me before I left Gotham City. There's an old broken-furniture, dusty-wooden floor, stained-covered walls with some holes, disgusting scents of moss and pollution, and cracked windows. I'm just surprised that the electricity and water still works in this dump and that nobody bothers to come by to see who's staying in this beat-down pile of trash.

I mostly go hungry and could only get my meals out of trashcans with the rest of the homeless people, since I don't have money to spend on or bother on getting a job to help me out. Since I ran away at fourteen, I dropped out of Gotham Academy and a lot of jobs don't want drop-outs to be working for them, especially to a homeless sixteen year-old teen who hadn't bathe in a good while. My bed is just a ripped up couch with a broken-back right-leg, while my blanket is either the remaining clothes I still wore for nearly three years, found on the street, or dried-up newspaper I would find in the trash or on the ground.

My only companies are the rats and insects that lives in this abandon house and the birds who rules the skies of Blüdhaven, who simply just leave me be when they see me not a threat and a Street-Rat like themselves. Everyone in Blüdhaven simply sees me as a Low Life, a pathetic living animal beneath their level. They clearly don't recognize me as Bruce's 'Ward', and that's how I wanted it to be: Everyone to see just a simple common stranger, a _Nobody_, who isn't even worth to have the dirt wiped off of their shoes onto me.

As Nightwing, however, they see me as their champion, their savior... Their Wings of the Night. The villains and criminals, though, saw me as a threat that needed to be disposed of. They also saw me as a joke, since I don't look to be a day over between twelve to fourteen in their eyes, but they could also see that underneath the mask, I'm the Dark Knight's Protégé. Well, _was_ his partner.

Either way, they don't take me very lightly and I have the many scars to prove it, along with a couple of infections here and a few sprains there. I'm telling you, it gets harder for me to keep this up when I have no medications to take care of my wounds and had to use rags to stop the bleeding. If I go to the hospital and if they took me to get a good wash and food, they'll most likely recognize me as Dick Grayson and would call Commissioner Gordon or even Bruce in a heartbeat.

I don't want to go back to a city where my life as a performed Trapeze/Acrobat has ended and became a Multi Billionaire's Charity Case had begun. Not like that: A fake, a pretender, and a joke. I can keep going down the list of names I've been called or had been known as from Gotham Academy and the voices of Gotham. If I were to head back to Gotham and if Bruce sees me like this, he'll be very disappointed in me... Even if I no longer live with him or have to worry about him anymore, his praises still make me feel appreciated and his love gave me the Will to keep living and fighting... But now, I don't know if I want to keep doing this any longer.

I've been having many thoughts about committing suicide, to just end it and forever be done with crime-fighting, but I just couldn't do it. I don't know why, but something in my heart is telling me to not do it, even when it seems that death is the only way out of it.

I know that if I kill myself, I'll be sent to Hell for taking my own life away and would never be reunited with my deceased family, but I've been rethinking about the past and realized that I had many near-death experiences, with a few of them are even long before I came to live with Bruce in Gotham and had became a hero:

Mom told me that I was supposed to die when I was just born for being born two months premature, but I didn't.  
I was supposed to be on the trapeze with my family on that dreadful night, but I wasn't.  
Zucco was supposed to drown me in order to get rid of me for being a material witness of my family's death, but he didn't.  
Two-Face tried to beat me to death, but I survived.  
Cadmus was going to clone me and my friends and then get rid of us, but they didn't.  
Red Torpedo meant to have me drowned, but I pulled through.  
Red Tornado was supposed to suck in all the air and have my Team and I die from suffocation, but we lived.  
Kid Flash and I died in an explosion on the Mother Ship, but it wasn't real.  
The Parasite absorbed my ability and energy before we performed at the Haly's Circus and I was falling towards my death, but Conner caught me and launched me back into the air towards M'gann.  
Vandal Savage commanded the Justice League to kill us, but we fought back and won our mentors back from his control.

I came to realize that I wasn't supposed to be alive at all. I mean, I know that I survived and made it through those near-death experiences, but they keep on coming and are getting harder for me to endure any longer. Despite those thoughts in mind, I'm not going to take my life away. Besides, I think I deserve to go through the punishment by being a low-class Street Rat of Blüdhaven.

As for giving up crime-fighting, it would be like giving up a part of who I am and what I want to be, even if it would end up getting me killed.  
Back when I was eight, a few people who knows about my second life as a crime-fighter had constantly told me and Bruce that they wanted me to live a normal life and had never became a hero... I wish that I could live a normal life, but I'm afraid that's no longer possible.  
The only way for me to live a normal life again would be me for me to live back at the Haly's Circus and have my family brought back from the dead, but I'm afraid not even Doctor Fate can reverse the Hand of Time to the day they fell or had controlled the Past to prevent their fall from ever happening.

As I have many thoughts going through my head, leaning against the wall with skinny-tights and no shirt on to cover the bandages from my previous fights with another gang and a couple of gun-runners, my eyes were directed to the window to show me the many buildings of Blüdhaven and the heavy rain pouring down from the sky. I'm positive that Gotham is having rain tonight as well, since Blüdhaven is the Sister City of Gotham and are only two hours apart from each other.

In my right-hand, that also lays on my right-knee which it and my left-knee are pulled up towards me, is an empty can of Sprite, which I need to refill with water soon. I'll put it outside of the window before I head to bed; I'm either too tired or simply don't care much to do it already and get fresh water from the rain, which I desperate need since the water from the old faucets aren't fresh and smell completely odd. I think the true reason to my sudden tiredness is because I'm ill, mixture of the water I had to drink from the faucets and with some of my wounds getting infected.

With no money, I can't buy any medication to help me with my wounds or fever. If I steal, it'll damage my reputation as a hero since I'll be stealing from innocent people and may end up like villains or burglars, themselves. Besides, I can't draw any attention that will have the Team or the League to come and find me, especially Bruce and my family.

I know that they'll find me, eventually. But, for now, all I need to do and focus on is to survive and to keep fighting. And as I wait for that day to come, I'll continue to live my life as a Street-Rat until it finally comes or if some punk gets lucky and takes away my life... However, I don't think either of those options will come, because I think my infections are making me sick and if I don't treat them soon, they'll eventually have me go through a slow and painful death. Who knows? Maybe my death will come to me once I go out on patrol after a few hours of sleep.

* * *

**Bruce's POV**  
It's been so long since I last seen my son, which has been two years ago since he ran away from home. It felt like centuries, forever even, instead of two short but long years since he left Gotham. During those two years, however, I found other children who are a lot like Dick and I, though each have a different story, and have brought onto my dark world before and after I written the papers to let me keep them as my own.

I honestly thought Dick was going to be my eldest son, since he is my first to have came into my home and life, but it seems that I was proven wrong when I found others who're either in the same condition as me and Dick or have their reasons to be coming here. Terry and Damian, however, their reasons are both the same: They're both a part of me and share my blood, which makes them my biological sons.

I actually forgotten the time when I used to be young and was in love with Talia, back when I was still starting out as Batman and when I didn't know that her father was villain who wants to destroy more than half of the Earth's population, until I recalled when she has chosen her father's loyalty over me and that was the day before we spend our first night together as a couple and when I had asked her to marry me.

I never knew she would end up pregnant and had kept my child a secret, but she had happened to come by to Gotham one night, while I was out on patrol and back when I had three of my adoptive children, and had presented Damian to me and my protégés.  
She admitted that she felt bad on betraying me and keeping our child a secret from me, but she told me that she was going to change and wanted me to have our son to become a hero, not the assassin and heir Ra's Al Ghul wanted to help make his dream into a reality. Right before she left, Talia told me that she would help me look for Richard and that she'll stay in touch to keep an eye on my children and I.

As for Terry, it seems that Clark isn't the only one who had Cadmus clone a younger-version of himself: Even though he doesn't look a lot like me or Damian, Terry has my entire trait in his blood and has evidence that he is my son. Though they had kept him hidden to keep him safe in case something were to happen to me, Guardian and Dubbilex suggested that he lives with us and have his own freedom, just like Conner.

It amazes me on how I was able to have two teens and four young adults in less than a year, especially when I had kept Dick for five years when he was eight and never thought about having another child in the Manor, back when I thought he would stay with me and Alfred forever. However, even if I were to adopt or take in anymore children and with Barbara and Kate part of the Bat-Family, my family will never be whole or completed without my first and actual 'Little Bird' of the family. My family isn't the only one missing the company of our actual and very first Boy Wonder:

The Team at Mount Justice, though full of some of their own children and with new members had been added to the group, the original Team to have formed the Young Justice are missing their youngest member and 'little brother' to cheer them up and be accompanied by or to have him mess and tease during training. Even though they never met Dick, the newest Team had watched some videos of him from the Past and are already grieving over his absence, even though they never met him in person.

As for the Justice League, They were in the same condition: Ever since I've brought Dick to the hero business and presented him to the League when he was nine, he already captured their hearts and had the League wrapped around his fingers, just as he did to me and Alfred. Because of that, the League came to think of the boy as their own nephew and even as their own son, even though he already taken that title by being my son.  
They all loved him very much, especially the girls, who all became his aunts and Diana becoming one of his mother-figures.

I should've been surprised that Talia would offer to search for Dick, but then again, whenever Dick and I would be facing her and her father, she would do whatever it takes to avoid severely injuring him and when out in our civilians, appears to have a soft-spot for him and would try to spoil him.  
Selina was the same like Talia, having to go easy on him and would spend as much time as she could with the boy. And whenever he would go over to her home, Isis, Selina's feline friend and little partner in crime, would walk up to the boy and cuddle up to him, having to take in a great likeness into him the moment her icy-blue eyes laid eyes on my boy...

God, it felt like a lifetime since I last seen my son and with Winter making its appearance, I want nothing more than to have my child back home and safe within the hold of my arms before Christmas arrives.

I had hoped that I would be able to find him and bring him home a year ago, along with apologizing on not trusting him more than I should had and how much I'm proud to have him as my son. However, I'm afraid that my tracer I had Damian put on Dick's back made him feel betrayed and no matter how many times the Team or League would search for him, we could never be able to find him in any parts of the city that live close by our hometown... Well, except for one city that I should've bother to check: Blüdhaven, the Sister City of Gotham.

I know that I was supposed to be the World's Greatest Detective and should've searched for him there, but I thought and hoped that Dick would listen to my words and never go anywhere near or set foot in that awful city that's related to Gotham. That place is one of the very few places many criminals favor to strike fear into the hearts of citizens and steal with no problems escaping from the cops. Gotham seemed to be a terrible place to live in, but Blüdhaven is a lot worse than Gotham and because there's no hero to protect the innocents, many people prefer to live in a city protected by a hero instead of having the police to let them down and to be hunted down by cold-hearted bastards.

Maybe that's one of the reasons to how and why Dick could be staying at Blüdhaven: There's no hero protecting the city and with the Sister City being one of the cities the Dark Knight wouldn't bother to set foot in, it became a logical explanation that he's been living there and that none of us haven't been able to find him for two years because of my stubbornness and demand that no one is to go there.

Well, it seems that I'll be heading there, despite my uneasiness about that city. If my hunches are correct and Dick is living at that crime-rate city, then I'll have to find him as quickly as I can and get him back to Gotham. He'll most likely try to fight back to stay in Blüdhaven and will most likely not speak to me at all if I were to tie him to his old-bed at the Manor if I were to succeed, but I would rather have a Dick Grayson-Wayne whose pissed at me and refuse to speak to me instead of a dead Dick Grayson-Wayne who would be gone from my life and would never get the chance to know how much I love him.

And so, after telling my elder children about me leaving for Blüdhaven and giving them the order to not follow and to take care of Gotham until I get back, I was in my bat-suit and slammed my foot onto the gas of the Batmobile. It's raining cats and dogs today and both the streets and city are covered in snow, but I paid no mind about the chances of me crashing from how fast the Batmobile is going right now.

The only thing, or better yet, the only one on my mind right now is my son in Blüdhaven, who could most likely be cold and freezing from the rain and snow from Gotham's Sister City. I'm positively certain that he doesn't have a roof over his head to keep him warm and safe, but if he manage to somehow find a building to at least shield him from the snow and rain, then it would sort of make my search easier than to keep my eyes on every street or corner of Blüdhaven, especially the many alleys she has. However, the only problems are finding the right building he's living in, getting him out of there before he freezes and finding out what his appearance will be, since I'm positive he changed it to keep his identity covered. If he had kept his appearance the same, especially with the hair-style he would put it in and the color of his eyes, the police of Blüdhaven would've recognized him as my son and then would either call me or Commissioner Gordon about his whereabouts.

I knew that my teaching methods would help him be protected and hidden from our opponents and enemies, but I never thought that he would use my teachings and turn it against me... I guess I never really thought he would use his training method against me, because I never thought he would leave me for any reason and would forever stay by my side for a lifetime. Alfred had warned me about smothering him, either as Dick Grayson or Robin, but I ignored his warning. Clark and the League had told me about Dick's bonding with the Team and suggest that I allow him to stay a few days every week at the mountain with his team mates, but I refused their idea and simply did what I thought was right in order to keep Dick forever and protect him from the many dangers of Gotham.

I truly regretted my actions and now that I have paid the price for my actions, I know that now I have to fix it and I have to do it on my own; no one is to help me get Dick back into my life and home. I don't care how he'll react or do once I find him. Hell, I don't even care if he fights me to stay in that rotten Sister City of my "Fair Lady" City. He has to come back home and soon, before he does anything stupid that may cost him his life.

* * *

I know, I know. I need to stop with making Dick younger than his siblings, but I just can't help it.  
He's basically the main reason to why Bruce became the man who acts like a father for being the oldest of the Bat-Family, along with him having the full responsibility on keeping his siblings and the family alive. With him being the youngest, however, it makes him much more important and to have the whole sibling to work together to keep themselves together and keeping the main person who made them act like a true family. So, even if Dick were to actually be the youngest and Bruce to already become a father, they would all be a better and happier family because of him and why they're not strangling each other.  
Anyway a few quick notes: Roy isn't a clone in this one, Kaldur never betrayed the team (Tula isn't dead in this one) and started dating Raquel around half a month after the Light attacked the League, Wally and Artemis are still in the hero business, M'gann and Conner never split, and Zatanna is still part of the Team but won't be around much until she finds a new host for Doctor Fate.

R&R


	2. Pushing on for the Right

**Dick's POV**  
My back felt like I just slept on some rocks and my throat felt as dry as a desert in a blistering heatwave. My eyelids are like deadweights that refuse to open to see the unbearable sight of Blüdhaven and her plague-like nest. My ears could the sound of pouring rain, which were more like ice-chips trying to break through the cracked glass and implant their sharp-end onto my burning flesh from both infection and fever. Every inch of my muscles screamed in protest with the tiniest movement I use to rouse myself off my bed I've slept for two years, wanting me to stay completely still and fall back into more troublesome sleep.

Even without a clock or even a watch to tell the time is, I knew it was late and criminals are more likely striking at this very moment. So, ignoring the aches of my bones and muscles, I forced myself out of bed and had my eyes register its sight to help me see into the night that wasn't too dark for me to see because of the many lights of the city all flashing and brightening up the night for me.

I grabbed for my Kevlar Nightwing shirt, with the red-bird standing out proud and strong to fly; ready to shield me as much as it could from my opponents' guns, knives, and other choice of weapons to bring me down. I then placed my domino-mask over my eyes, seeing mostly red to help me detect and have better vision into the city without feeling blind through the lights. My gloves are now over my hands, which had spikes on the mid-part of my forearms to hold weapons or to tear into flesh and hard materials. And finally, put on my black-boots that went about an inch and a half over my ankles, which had some metal underneath to help me stay silent when sneaking on my enemies or landing easily with no pain to come into my feet and to deliver enough damage to bring my opponents down. Hanging onto my boots are my Escrima Sticks, which are strapped against my boots and are held within a pocket-knife like pouch, which I can easily pull out if I were in danger and while I was on the ground.

Once I was prepared for another day of patrol, did I leave my battered home and leap myself up to the rooftop. I then did my usual flips and soaring through air to patrol my city, with the gliders hanging under my arms to help me glide through the air.

As my arms spread out wide and with each fall I allow to soar through, I sighed in relaxation from the rain giving me a perfect refreshing moment of an imitated shower that I desperately needed and drinking the fresh raindrops to give me the extra energy and fluids my body needs to stay rehydrate.

* * *

**Bruce's POV**  
The moment I entered the hell-like city, Blüdhaven, did I see the similar reasons to how and why it's known to be the Sister City of Gotham: It has blinding lights flashing to block my visions, the scent and smell but mostly the sight of litter and the people making stupid choices all over the place, and how there seems to be that everybody looks ready to snap and commit a crime to gain attention or to just screw their lives up even more than its already been.

Last I heard of Blüdhaven, more than half of the city has been taken and being controlled by a gang that had killed more than 17,000 innocent lives in order to strike terror and fear into Blüdhaven's citizens and warn the police about trying to do anything heroic and what would happen to any of them if they were to take a single step into their territory that they've claimed. That was more than two years ago when I heard about the gang claim at Blüdhaven, but that also happened on the first two weeks when Dick had ran away from home. I actually thought one or some of the League Members took care of the gang problem but they told me that they never went to Blüdhaven, which lead me to believe that some other hero or heroes went here to take care of the problem.

I never thought Dick would be the one to save the city from crumbling when it was hanging by a single thread and all hope seemed to be lost but I guess that after the six years of having him in my life, I truly don't know all about him and his way of being a hero... I can't believe I didn't figure it out or bother to find out who Blüdhaven's Protector is, and some "Great Detective" I've been, I should've put two-and-two together on the two weeks Dick has left and when Blüdhaven's savior has came to her and her people's rescue.

I'm very proud on what Dick has accomplished and what he did to save the city, but my parental instincts is still on overdrive and wants me to grab Dick and leave this city to rot and fall, just as it should've fallen two years ago from the gang incident.

I had a hunch that if Blüdhaven had fallen to her knees and perished, along with her citizens to finally be free from the horror of their hometown, the gang would've left when there would be no more people to hurt or frighten and go to another city to try and take over like they did to Blüdhaven, only to be defeated by the Justice League and be locked up for many years to come. Blüdhaven would be dead, but it would've been the best for everyone if she had died and be left as a fallen landscape of cement and concrete or possibly be rebuilt to get rid of the terrible past it held and let a hero protect it in a new beginning.

However, Dick has to be all stubborn to let her fall when nobody bothered to help and chose to protect that hell-hole... Like a true-hero would do, instead of choosing the easy way for everyone on Earth to let the city go down and prove that there is still hope for Blüdhaven to be at least a safe place to live in. And for that, I'm very proud to have made him into a hero at the age of eight.

However, at times, I would regret to have brought him into my world and not have him live a normal life he deserves. I know that he made the decision to fight crimes and to be by my side, but I mostly think and believe that I've forced him into becoming a hero, a Vigilante at a very young age who wasn't even near the age of a preteen. If I could, I would've turned back time and prevent him from becoming a hero. If I did, I would prevent him from running away and trying to track down Zucco, which he nearly gotten himself killed if I hadn't been there in time to pull him out of the waters before he was pulled under and the waterfall would've swept him to drown.

Despite wanting him to be safe and not having to live in a world of war, I can't take it away from him, not like the before. When I took Robin away from him when he was ten and told him he won't be fighting again, after he nearly died from Two-Face beating him to death, he ran away and even joined a gang that was planning on killing Two-Face. Luckily, the plan never happened and Dick came back into my life, which also meant Robin was back.

By the time he was fourteen and while patrolling Gotham with me, Joker shot him in the shoulder and caused him to fall off the building we were on... I actually thought he had died. I honestly thought he was dead and has left me alone, just as my parents did when I was eight and when Joe Chill killed them at Crime Alley that night. Fortunately, he was alive and had survived both the fall and bullet wound. However, because of my worry that it would happen again and that he would die next time, I told him that Robin will remain dead and that he won't be fighting crime with me, his brothers, or even the Team and the League again.

I knew he would be angry at me for taking that choice away from him, but I never thought he would runaway again, especially when he was still injured from Joker and while he was still recovering from the bullet wound. Jason, Tim, Barbara and I searched for at least two weeks in Gotham to find him, but we couldn't find even the slightest lead or clue that would help us find out where he was. After the third week came by, I had no choice but to tell the Justice League about Dick's sudden disappearance and ask for their help to help me find him.

After I'd told them about the 'Joker Incident', they were beyond pissed with me and gave me a bunch of crap on how I went too far and should've let Dick decide if he wants to continue being Robin or not. I knew they were right but they weren't there when Dick was shot down and was falling to his death, so I used that to have them feel as guilty as I do. It worked on some of them but the rest stood their ground and after a couple of discussion of the issue, did they said they would help me look for my son.

For two years, they found nothing that would help us find our Little Bird. In the middle of the first and second year of his disappearance and when I had the rest of my children I've took in, did we finally get the chance to see Dick when Klarion was about to kill off my friend. Only, he wasn't going by Robin, anymore. Instead, he was now going as Nightwing and even after two years, did he remain as Nightwing.

After our battle with Klarion ended and while Etrigan sends his 'nephew' and Teekl to his room, was I allow to show my relief on finding my first and youngest child alive. However, just like the night and the way I would vanish without a trace, he was gone and my worry was back at full-force. Luckily, he left a letter behind and it told us that he will come back if we were ever in danger again. I don't know how he found out about us being in danger, but I am very grateful that he came.

Ever since that day, I felt hope coming back to the Manor and from within me. It was a sign that not only is my son's alive and doing well, but there could also be a chance I'll be able to find him and have him back home. And so, whenever danger were to come to Gotham or when the night is calm, Dick would come as Nightwing and fight along side with us or would come to simply check up on us.

In just five months, the rest of my children came to love and think of Dick as their brother and had asked of me to why he left home. I told them everything, with Jason and Tim backing me up and admitting that they had helped him leave the Manor without Alfred and I noticing. The rest of my children didn't blame Jason or Tim but just like the League at the Watchtower, they were very disappointed and angry at me, that they even gave me the stupid lecture on how I should've given Dick a choice if he wanted to continue being a Vigilante or not. Eventually, our conversation and argument finally ended and we all declared to find our Little Bird and bring him back.

So, whenever Dick comes over to help us in battle or came by to visit, the Bat-Siblings would do whatever it took to keep him close by and have one of them implant their tracers that I've designed for each one of them and hope that he doesn't find out about our plan. Luckily, Damian was the one who was able to get his tracer on Dick's back and went to following him when he had to leave. However, Dick found out that he was being followed because of a 'sixth sense' he obtained at the age of eight, and found the tracer on his back before Damian could even get close enough to grab him or even toss some Knock-Out Pellets. By the time the smoke cleared, Dick was gone and the tracker indicated that the tracer has been destroyed.

Because of our failed attempt to find him and with him gone without a trace, we haven't seen Dick ever since the day he found the tracer. Damian felt guilty that he failed his mission and blamed himself that Dick is forever gone. I told him that it wasn't his fault and that it was my own fault that he left in the first place, but he simply silenced my words and continued on blaming himself for the failing attempt to bring back the youngest of our family. The rest of the Bat-Siblings were also blaming each other for not being there to help out Damian on getting Dick back. And once again, hope slipped out of our fingers and darkness came back to the Manor, feeling that we'll never see the youngest of our own again and our family will never be whole anymore.

But now that I've found out where he is, I'm not going to let this chance slip away from me and have him gone from my life, again. And so, having to adjust the radio to Blüdhaven Police Department Radio, I drove around until the police say any word of a robbery or a villain that will have Nightwing come in to save them or until I actually see any sign of him.

* * *

**Dick's POV**  
I can't focus tonight. I mean, recently, I've been having trouble focusing and my vision would be playing tricks with me. But tonight, my eyes feel like they're going to permanently shut down because my eyelids are trying to close and that tonight will be the last I'll ever see another day or night of life. It was like a warning... That I'm actually going to die; either by a crook, the sickness from my infected wounds, or actual illness I caught for a good while.

I've been having this feeling for awhile, around the first or second month of my second year as Nightwing and living in Blüdhaven. During my first year as Nightwing, I only received minor injuries, like cuts or bruises. However, my second year wasn't as easy as I hoped it would, because I ended up with multiple bullets and stab wounds, not just bruises or scratches. Then, around my five month, the criminals decided to start using poisons and tasers to damage me even further. And last month, which is the sixth month of my second year and was November, they brought out chains and whips to get better Attack Range and hope to either break a bone or, if they're lucky, wrap their weapon around my neck to choke me to death.

I still bear the scars and markings, even the pain from wounds that left my skin are still imprinted on me throughout my years on fighting. Hell, I even still have the markings from my time at the Juvenile Detention Center and Gotham Academy, back when I was made to be everybody's punching-bag because of my height and size.

Neither the guards from the JDC or the teachers at GA did anything about it. In fact, the teachers would simply pass by a fight going on and when a student needs to go to the hospital, they don't bother to pick up the phone and dial for 911. Juvie, though they're practically the same when some of us needs to go to the hospital for treatment, at least they bother to stop the fight from going on and even seem to care for us if we were to get sick.

Blüdhaven is like a mixture of those two: Nobody ever coming to help, but having some hidden friends or allies for those who have nothing. Well, that is, when they give a damn to who they're going to help. While as a civilian, no one gives the slightest idea to help me, which includes children. It's obvious that their parents are teaching them to become cold-hearted, upper class gluttons. The only ones who has a heart are other street rats and strays or wild animals who were either abandoned, runaways, neglected, or who simply never had homes to begin with.

I know that if my friends hears about my life as a Low-Class human and how I've been treated by the people I protect, I bet they would think I should've been mad and even treat them same thing thing they did to me as Nightwing... However, that's just not me. I may be one to hold some grudges and never enjoy being picked on or cast aside, but I'm not the kind of person who treats others like they did to me. I'm not the kind to become like them or snoop to their level.

That's why I'm out patrolling, especially when I'm sick and injured, because I want my actions and efforts to get through their thick heads to actually care for those who has nothing and when they have something that can help or even save a life. My heart feels like it's beating a hundred mile per hour or so and my headache is banging my head like my head's been slammed against a steel wall multiple times to loose count. My eyes are making me see spots but if it weren't for the rain pouring down around me, I would most likely pass out from dehydration and burn in my own abnormal body heat. My body wants me to head back home and sleep, but my mind is too focused on scooping for any sign of danger before I would call it a night and head back to the apartment for some rest.

_***Bang!... Bang! Bang!...***_

The echoing sound of guns firing caught my attention and because of sounds coming out without warning, my adrenaline immediately spiked up and coursed through my body with energy. From that sudden boost, my eyes stopped getting blurry and the urge to sleep sat aside, allowing me to head to where the sound of guns are being let loose, which are coming from Blüdhaven's famous electronic stores.

I let out a groan of annoyance; that store has been robbed more than ten times in three weeks and store manager obviously didn't bother to get some security for his shop. However, Blüdhaven has been having money issue lately and I actually understand why the manager may not have been able to hire security, better locks, or even install surveillance cameras. Besides, he already has a nine month old daughter to take care of, who I rescued a month ago from being a hostage from another crook who demanded the manager for his best phone and camera to help him rob places better by disguising his voice with the phone and searching for hidden cameras with the special camera.

By the time I reached the store, I was on a building across the street from the shop and saw three guys coming out from the hole they made through the giant glass, all wearing ski-masks and threatening the crowd to get back and to not contact the police. After staring at the ripped shoulders from their leather jackets, along with the traditional marking of a claw-hand of a Chinese red-dragon making three diagonal claw-marks on the right-thigh of their dark-blue jeans and a white-eye with a light Amethyst as a pupil on the front-left of their jacket, indicates that they're of the Dragon Slayers Gang: The same gang that caused the great Gang Invasion of Blüdhaven two years ago. Even though I've stopped them countless times and had destroyed their pride from their invasion plan, they keep on coming back and they have a new goal to fulfill before they could pull a stunt like that again: Hunt me down and kill me, whatever means necessarily.

Two of the three men each carried small-box TVs underneath one of their arms and the one in front, who most likely is the leader of the small group, had a sack hauled over his left-shoulder and the tied-end clenched within his left-hand, which is most likely all money the manager and customers. Each of the three held a gun over their right and within their right-hand, each of them very dangerous and are most likely illegal to possess: The first man, who came out of the glass-hole first, held an Automatic Handgun, with another one being held in the right-pocket of his pants. The second one has a Uzi Submachine Gun, though he seems to be having trouble carrying the TV and appears to be more focused on getting a firm grip with one hand instead of trying to aim and shoot whoever tries to come near them. Then the leader, the last of them to come out of the shop, held a Heckler Koch HK MG4, with its back laying over his right-shoulder and the nozzle aimed in the air, releasing many bullets and scaring the citizens of Blüdhaven from its sounds and the thought of being shot by those bullets.

I know what the leader of the group wants: He wants me to come out and play the hero to stop them from stealing and attempting to murder, so that he and his pals could get the chance to try and shoot me. They obviously don't see me, because of the pouring rain blocking their vision and the black-clouds making the lights of the city to very much blind them, which means that I can deliver a perfect sneak attack and prevent the people from getting hurt. However, I have to make it quick, because I can feel my adrenaline beginning to slowly fade away and my eyes going all blurry, too. And so, as I got down on all four and quickly made my way onto a line that held many blue-lights of snowflakes, and with nobody noticing me from above, I took a deep breath and launched myself in the air.

* * *

**Bruce's POV  
**So far, the city seems to be alright; cars driving normally instead of insane and carefree, there are trash littered on the sidewalks and street but they don't seem that much trash than the images I would see on the newspaper about Blüdhaven's Problems, and the people walking in the rain don't seem to be afraid and are acting like Blüdhaven is like any other ordinary city to be living in.

_Dick..._ He's the reason why they're all like this and seem to be rebuilding their city, rather than living in fear and hiding within the safety of the many demolished buildings of Blüdhaven. At the moment, I feel like I could be in the wrong city or could be in some sort of Alternate Universe of Blüdhaven.

_**"Sarge, we have some Dragon Slayers shooting over at the Shocking Eel. All are in a possession of dangerous guns; each one of them illegal, armed, and many citizens are in the way and are in reach on getting hit."**_

My radio finally got something from Blüdhaven's Police Department. I turned up the volume a bit more and shifted the channel a bit to get rid any statics from the police's conversation.

_**"I copy that. Is Nightwing there?"**_

The name of my son's hero name got me to gasp and to slam the breaks to stop the Batmobile from moving. At the moment, no cars were in my sight or behind me, and I was leaning in over the radio to hear if Dick is actually at the raided store.

_**"Not yet, sir, but he should be here any moment now."**_

_**"Very well. Backup will be heading your way; try and buy Nightwing some time until he or the team gets there. For now, get the citizens away from the Shocking Eel and be sure that none of the Dragon Slayers try to shoot anybody."**_

_**"Roger. Over and out."**_

Once the conversation has ended, did I flip the small-screen of the Batmobile on and pulled up the map of Blüdhaven. I then began to type rapidly with my right, entering the name to where the police are heading for. The monitor immediately got a match

_Shocking Eel; 124 Vile Street, Route 19_

The monitor then pinpointed to where I am in the city, along with where the Shocking Eel is at. I was nine blocks south and four blocks west from where it was, but that wasn't too far for the Batmobile to get there. Once I gained the information I needed, I slammed my right-foot onto the gas petal and the Batmobile immediately went forward. I may not know this city like Gotham, but at least the Batmobile can show me where I need to go and can even store the map of Blüdhaven in its Memory Data Base.

_***Bang!... Bang! Bang!...***_

My eyes widen when I heard the sound coming from outside of the Batmobile and window, which has been heard through the thundering droplets of rain... The same exact sound that will always bring back the memory of my parents death, to the day when my childhood has been stripped from me and created the Batman within me: The sound of gunshots. I made an immediate right-turn, causing a few cars to shake out of control and to hit part of the building or streetlight posts, but I know that the drivers and citizens are alright and nobody is seriously injured. My main concern at the moment are the gunners who are armed, and who could easily hurt or even kill innocent lives with just a pull of the trigger... I hope that Dick has Kevlar; I'll never forgive myself if anything happens to him and I'm not there to help or to even same him.

TBC

* * *

I know it seems a bit shorter than the first chapter, but I'm hoping that the next one to be longer. I made up the name of the shop; don't really know much of Blüdhaven.

Also... Today's my birthday; I'm turning 18 and to be honest, I'm not really excited about it. Anyway, even if I'm becoming an adult, a friend of mine told me that you officially become an adult when you turn 20 or 21. So, basically, if what my friend says is true, then that will mean I'll still be a teenager, which I'm hoping to be true.

R&R


	3. Will, Pried, and Determination

**Dick's POV  
**My ribs are burning in mere agony with each step and movement I take and I could feel my neck still tightening from being strangled by chains and having me lose my breath quicker than usual. Despite the wounds I obtained from my fight and the lightheaded feeling making me see spots in the dancing rain, I didn't cease my running, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, or gliding down to the next rooftop. I had to get away from the Shocking Eel. I had to get away from the scene, before _he_ catches up to me; I was finally able to gain my own freedom at the age of fourteen, and I'm not about to give it up that easily.

I'm not afraid of dying and I wasn't running away because of the bullet wound I have lodged within my left-side of my ribs or that my neck still feels like the chain is still constricting around itself and drawing out both blood and air. I've already taken care of the Dragon Slayers Gang; the cops are taking them to prison and had already confiscated their guns after I've knocked them out from my surprising appearance and attacks... However, I didn't walk away from the fight, not without having to be inflicted with more bullet and chain wounds to be added with the rest of my battle scars.

After I came down from above, only one of the men, the one holding the Uzi Submachine Gun, saw me coming down and aimed his gun towards me. However, before his finger could even put the slightest pressure on the trigger, I punched him square in the face and forced him to the ground. The other two men backed away when they watch me take down one of their own, while the crowd either gasped in surprised or cheered that I've taken down a crook before their very eyes. As I kept my opponent to the ground and while he tries to get back up from the sudden dizziness that my punch caused him to get, I heard one of the gang member from behind me cocking his gun and aiming it at me.

"You little piece of **rahat**(Sh*t)!" I turned my gaze behind me, seeing that it was the one with the Automatic Handgun that called me trash in my old Romanian Language. "Prepare to have your guts pump full of lead, worthless dog!" My eyes from underneath my red-lense domino-mask narrowed at him and his choice of words, while my attention is to how he's aiming and aiming his gun; his hand is trembling within his hold, which will make his aims completely off and a huge advantage for me to be able to dodge with ease, and the rain and lights are making him having trouble to see and because he has one arm holding the small TV box, he can't wipe the water off his face without having to put or drop the TV to the ground.

He then pulled back the trigger and released the bullets to get me moving, which had me to either leap in the air and twist my body to dodge the bullets or run and use either the Shocking Eel's walls or their car that they used to get to the store to get myself in the air to be sure that his aim doesn't hit anybody within the crowd. My plan is to have him keep missing and once he runs out of bullet, I would strike and take him down. I didn't have to wait long for that to happen and the moment he found out that his gun ceased its firing, I pulled out both my Escrima Sticks from my boots after I positioned my launching position from their car and as I launched myself backwards, I shifted my left and smacked him in the face and knocked him off his feet.

Once he was on the ground, I shifted the rest of my body to have my feet towards the ground first and had my left-foot to hold his right-wrist, forcing his hand to let go of the Automatic Handgun and then used my left Escrima stick to push it aside. I then smirked at his scared expression on his face and his sudden realization to be regretting on ever taking on me in the first place; I've taught him the true meaning on being afraid on staring fear in the face.

_**"Spuneai, bastard?**_(You were saying, bastard?)_**" **_I asked, knowing that we both know that I've already won the fight the moment I took the job on being Blüdhaven's Protector and that he's going to wish he never joined the Dragon Slayers Gang in the first place. His brown green-speck eyes stared up at me, begging and pleading for forgiveness and mercy for what he's done and to be spared.

Back when I was Robin, rather I was with the Team or Batman, I would spare them and then hang them up for the cops to take away. However, ever since I became Nightwing, I grew a bit colder and instead of just cutting them some slack and hanging them, I would have them learn some lesson of pain and fear, and then I would knock them out and take an item from them to keep as a souvenir of my successful mission.

At first, I was thinking on giving him a few more beatings for attempting to hurt those people within the store and the crowd if I didn't came on time, but then my mind was having trouble while I stared into his gaze... They were the same as mine; not the same eye-color, since his was brown with green-specks and mine are Cerulean/Sapphire, but the same pleading gaze for compassion and a heart to help me or to give me something that would help me from the citizens of Blüdhaven. I know that many crooks and villains I fought are good and try to sweet talk themselves out of trouble and try to even prove it, but there were some who are trying to change but seems impossible to turn a knew leaf and go straight. The Dragon Slayers Gang were no exception.

I wanted to beat the living daylights out of this bastard for reminding me on my screwed up life in Blüdhaven and only to be known as a champion to the Sister City of Gotham at night, while being a nobody and a pathetic filthy street-rat during the day. However, I have to remind myself that I can't snoop to his or his gang's level and become a cold-hearted, emotionless, self-righteous bastard... Just like _him_. I then let out a deep sigh of annoyance and was starting to regret on my decision, but I grabbed a hold of my emotions and removed my foot from his wrist. The man underneath me, who had shut his eyes closed when he heard me let out a sigh, slowly opened his eyes and was now staring up at me in confusion and shock.

"You're lucky that I'm not the Bat from Gotham, Under-Link." I told him. "Otherwise, you would be in a World of Pain."

I always hate to compare myself to Bruce; everybody back at Gotham would compare me to him, especially when I was just living with him when I was eight, and would say how much I resemble him in many ways. Nearly more than half of them thought that I was Bruce's actual son and were spreading rumors about him meeting my mother while he was traveling around the world and how they... I rather not talk about it.

The man under me looked relieved from my words and was slowly sitting his upper-half of his body up when I shifted my body away from him. However, before he could even shift himself to his right in order to place both of his hands on the ground and his back to me, I clenched my left Escrima Stick in my hand and with a quick brought down of my hand, I whacked the man back to the ground and had him lose consciousness completely. He should be lucky that I didn't put that much pressure to that whack. Otherwise, either his skull or jaw, or even both of them, would've cracked and would have to be in the hospital for a few weeks to recover.

I heard a few gasps from the crowd around me; completely startled and not expecting to witness my sudden choice of action. I sneered down at my knocked out prey in disgust, and then roughly kicked him to lay on his stomach for the cops to get once I finish off his two pals.

"I told you that you wouldn't be in a World of Pain. That didn't mean that I was going to let you or your friends off easily with just a simple warning or a show of mercy." I told my unresponsive prey. "Despite what you had to go through from your past before you came to this city and the fact that many of you were once innocent people ourselves, you are still a Dragon Slayers Gang Member; you and your gang planned on both taking over and destroying Blüdhaven, along with slaughtering and endangering innocent lives, all those years ago before I came here, two years ago. And for that, I cannot and will not trust you to not doing anything stupid." I then slowly got myself to sit up right and kept my glare on him... Which was a stupid mistake that almost cost me my life.

I was too focused on glaring down at my opponent, I've completely forgotten the other two members and before I could get back to my senses...

_***Bang!...***_

My breath hitched up that would almost sound like a gasped hiccup, my eyes widen in the middle of the sound that had my red-lense grow and may possibly freaked out some of the citizens when they saw the red-lenses widening all of a sudden... And my left-side was burning from a sudden hot-pressure that dug through my skin and bones, along with a sudden liquid-feeling that is most likely my blood. I knew the consequences of my clothing; it may be Kevlar, but Bruce's suit had tougher layer of Kevlar that would protect him from both close and long range shots, while my Kevlar suit is only useful for protecting me from long range shoots.

I slowly turned my head to my left, my eyes still widen, and saw it was the first guy I tackled to the ground first that shot me. He was lying on his front-side of his body, holding up the top-half of his body with his elbows, with his right-hand held up a bit higher and held out farther than his face, with the gun held shakily in his grip. The smoke coming out of the hole of the gun was proof that it had fired a bullet, and the thought on having to just allow a worthless gang member to shoot me got my anger to rise.

If I didn't have red-lenses to cover my eyes, then I would know the definition of seeing red, because even with the lenses, I can still see a darker kind of red at that moment. The shooter on the ground was now shaking violently in fear and ended up letting go of the gun in his hand; now realizing what he shouldn't have done and is already regretting what he just did.

"You're next, Sly Rat." I snarled, and before I knew it, I was blindlessly running towards the now stunned and scared shooter. However, once again and ignoring my sixth sense of sensing, I was attacked by the leader of the group.

I didn't know where he went after I jumped one of them but it turned out while I was dealing with his pals, he went into getting something out of their car... And what it was, is the item that had wrapped itself around my neck and is choking the air and life out of me: It was a very long chain, which their leader had formed it into a metal-lasso to get me from long range. Because of the pressure closing in and the chains threatening to dig into my skin to draw out blood, I had to let go of one of my Escrima Sticks, which I let the right one go, and grabbed hold of the chain in front of my neck to pull away some of the pressure from my throat.

Though I had only one hand holding back the chains and had lost weight, I prove to be a lot stronger than I appear to be and even when I kneeled down on my left-knee, I already hatched up a plan to end this little game, once and for all, and I had to do it quick; if I keep on moving around and don't get it out of me soon, the bullet inside of me will dig itself deeper into my bones and muscles, and if it hits anything important, then I'll be inching myself closer to Death's Door than I'm supposed to be.

"What are you waiting for, Kran? Shoot him!" The leader yelled out at the one who shot me, pulling on the chains tighter and trying to have me let go of the metal-lasso. Through my gloves, I can feel my hands bruising and aching from the continuous tugging, but they kept their firm grip and won't let go until my opponent lets go first. The man on the ground, who I dubbed 'Sly Rat' and for that being his gang name, seems to be having trouble getting his gun back into his hand; his hands kept on shaking violently and his eyes were still locked onto me, making it much more difficult for him to actually see where he dropped his gun. "Kran. Take your eyes off of the Bastard Child of Batman to find your gun, and blast his beaten heart!" The leader hollered out, and from the sound of footsteps coming closer and the sudden jolt of the chains shaking, he was slowly making his way towards me.

A bunch of the citizens gasped from he just called me, while some covered their mouth with a hand or two from his fowl language of use and those who had their kids with them went and quickly covered their ears to prevent them from hearing anymore cursed words that the shooters will say next. My heart banged itself even harder in my chest from what he just called me: My mind felt like he was right on what he just called me and know that I have no right to be called his son, anymore, though it also wants me to break his neck and silence his voice before it becomes a broken record in my memories. While my heart felt hurt and also wanted him to shut him up, while at the same time to cry out for Bruce to come and show him how much I actually mean to Bruce to prove him wrong.

Not wanting to fall apart from the need of what my heart craves for, I held back the pain and harden it even more to hold it in. The beating of my heart began to bang even harder, somehow even going slower than its usual beating from adrenaline rush and when in a battle, and because of the sudden jolt, it made the air from my lungs completely vanish and my throat constricted even more than before, even with most of the pressure being pulled away so that it could grasp for more breath. Strength has immediately sapping right out of me and that caused me to cease my pulling the chain away from my throat and have the pressure double.

_'No!' _I cried in my mind, pulling even harder on the chair and forcing my lungs to draw breath from the freezing and wet air of the pouring rain sky. If my lungs don't draw in enough air for me, then I'll miss my chance to put my plan into action and I'll surely screw up on taking the two men down. _'Not now! Don't you dare give up on me right now, not at this time!' _No matter how much it was killing me, I couldn't let the crooks win and have innocent lives to once again live in fear of the Dragon Slayers. _'You can't let them down!... Not like how you let Bruce down!' _The doubt and memory of me letting Bruce down multiple times as Dick Grayson and Robin gave me a sort of extra adrenaline energy stored within me and gain back some of my strength back to my grip, but that still wasn't enough for me to draw in breath that I desperately needed.

**_~Click~_**

My eyes widen when I heard that sound, knowing that Sly Rat has reclaimed his gun and is preparing to shoot me. I tried to get to my feet, but the leader yanked me back down to the ground and had me on both of my knees. The jolt of the chains stopped, along with the footsteps, and then I felt a hand on top of my head and yank me to look up. Behind and in front of my gaze was the leader; smirking with satisfaction and glaring massive anger over me.

"Look at you," he sneered at me. He then yanked my hair a bit, making me grunt in pain and growl at him in warning. "You've only been here for two years, and are now already staring death in the face." He then stepped on my left-hand that was on the ground, forcing my fingers to let go of my Escrima Stick and having me completely unarmed. "How old are you, kid? Because to me, you appear to only be a teenage. Still a minor, and too young to be living on your own." He then chuckled and tightened his grip onto my hair. "I guess that's why DaddyBats abandoned you; you're pathetic, a pretender whose actually a mistake from the very beginning." While keeping his grip on my head, he pulled back a bit and then punched me in the left-side of my back, directly where the bullet is still lodged within my ribs, and was finally able to force a scream of pain to rip through my voice.

From around us, I could hear the screams and cries of fear from the citizens of Blüdhaven, many of them pleading and even demanding the gang to release me and stop my torment of pain. Through blurry visions, I could see the children staring completely frozen in disbelief that their hero is going to lose and die right in front of them. Even from afar distance, I could see a lot of people having tears in their eyes and trying to stay strong; even the cops, who had came to pull the people away from the Shocking Eel and buy some time for me to hatch up a plan by aiming their guns at the two gang members, were also trying to hold back tears and not breakdown to scare the citizens even more than they already are.

Despite holding back the pain and fear, along with putting on brave faces, the leader of the group simply enjoyed the gaze and looks he was gaining from the pain he's inflicting on me. He then turned his gaze to his pal on the ground, who I can't see from being forced to stare up at the blinding lights of Winter and the gentle pelting of rain washing over us.

"Get ready to shoot, Kran, and be sure to get a perfect shot, or else I'll have to report to Axel about your performance tonight and have you rank back to the Third Class Level." Huh, something told me that the gang would have ranks because of the number of members it has, even though many of those members are still in prison from almost taking over the city.

"Uh... R-R-Right, Ignazio." Kran stuttered in fear; either afraid about his boss lowering his rank, what Mad Dog might do to him if he doesn't shoot me, or that I'll break out of his pal's hold and beat them brutally like I did to Under-Link. That idiot has no idea that I can't get out of this mess, not this time. Again, Mad Dog, or by his real name, Ignazio, chuckled darkly again and glared down at me.

"Well, this is it, Nightwing. The end of the road." He told me, removing his hand from my head and now grabbed for the back of my throat to keep me looking up at the building and falling rain. "You won't have to worry about Blüdhaven, anymore; The Dragon Slayers Gang will take very good care of her, just like how we've planned to do so all those years ago."

A lump formed itself within my neck that forced me swallow for air and fallen rain-water, but that didn't make the lump go away. I didn't say anything to Mad Dog and simply took slow heavy breathing, staring at the black sky and the blinding lights of Christmas Holiday. I can hear the citizens around me shouting out my Vigilante Name, begging and pleading for me to break free and stop the bad guys, including the children. I simply shut out their voices and prepared myself to accept my fate; I was going to die, and there's nothing anybody can do about it to even try and stop this from happening... And to be honest, I didn't want anybody to do anything about it.

I've made my decision long and hard, long before I came to live in the Dark World of Bruce's: If I were to die, I was going to die as a hero and to die trying by protecting others from harm. I've made that promise all those years ago, around the time my actual dad saved me at the age of 5 when I was falling towards my death during a trapeze training my cousin and I were doing with our folks... Even from the time I was so young that I would have so much imagination and thoughts full of dreams, I knew that I was destined for something more than my time at the Haly's Circus, and this was it.

My vision grew more blurrier by the moment; the bullet now deeper within my ribs, my neck being strangled continuously, and my illness growing much more stronger than before. Mad Dog, seeing watching me not doing anything to free myself, simply chuckled and then pat me on the head with his other hand, which may had been on his Heckler Koch HK MG4 to prepare himself to shoot me if I were to break free from their grasp.

"Time to say 'goodnight', Nightwing... Or should I now say, _Broken-_Wing." My eyes from underneath my Domino-Mask slowly began to close; I didn't want to see the satisfied look on his face, nor did I want to see the look of defeat on my face through his Topaz-brown eyes. I knew this was it and that my fate has been sealed.

_'Well... This seems to be it,' _I thought to myself. _'If I have any regrets, it would be not telling all my friends and surrogate-family how much I come to love them... Especially you, Bruce, and I wish that I'd get the chance to apologize... If only I get to see him once last time, before I die.' _I then let out a small breath that I held within my lungs and my eyes fully closed. _'If this is how I was supposed to die, then I'll accept this sentencing with open arms... I've finally made a choice and answer for the question that's been bothering me for so long: Life or Death... I've chosen death...' _I then slowly reopened my eyes and stared up at the sky; Mad Dog chose to take his time staring and ordering Sly Rat to focus and to wait for him to give the command to shoot me. _'I'll soon be with you, my family.' _I then let out a small smile on my face. _'We'll all be together, again. Only this time, we'll eternally be together, in paradise...' _I was about to re-close my eyes when I knew they were ready to finish me off, but something caught my eyes from the rooftop of the building I was just on... And my eyes widen in shock and the smile on my face completely vanished when I saw what it was... Or should I say, _who_ it was.

It was that one man that I've asked in my mind to see before I pass on to the Afterlife and rejoin my family, and I know that I'm not imagining or seeing him at this moment: Batman, the Dark Knight. AKA, Bruce Wayne, multi-billionaire playboy and White Knight of Gotham City. My ex-mentor and partner... My adopted father. My heart skipped a few beats within my chest, a mixture of relief but also in shock and shame. Relief for he came when I wanted to see him, in shock that he came without warning, and shame for having him see me like this. Even though Mad Dog had his hand off my head, his grip on my neck made it hard and impossible for me to bend my head down to avoid seeing the Bat's gaze staring down at me.

Throughout my years as the Dark Knight's partner, I was always able to tell what the bat was thinking or what kind of look he's giving me through the cowl that shields his eyes from the viewing eyes of citizens. Despite no longer his partner or out fighting crimes beside him and my siblings, neither my sixth sense nor my ability to read people gotten any slimmer or weaker. Thanks to crime continuously going on in Blüdhaven, my senses and ability gotten stronger and had me even to tell who'll cause problem or not. They can even work in the rain, even when I'm too ill to even hold myself up and in the middle of a fight...

And I'm completely startled on what I'd seen through the cowl from the Dark Knight, himself: Instead of his usual glares to bring fear into the people or the glance to have him be compared to a silence man-beast, they held emotions that I never thought to see in him, especially after the Two-Face and Joker Incidents. They held the Fear from the man who brings fear to the hearts of criminals, they held the Disbelief from the same man who knows there's always a way to solve a problem... But most of all, they held the Love of that same man who'll always have me to know how much he has cared and loved me for so long, the same love he's given to me the moment he saw me break down after my family's death and when taking me away from the Juvenile Detention Center after witnessing the markings I obtained from the older teens.

I wasn't sure if I were reading him right; he hardly shows these kind of emotions when he's Batman, not even when I was still starting out or when I was still Robin. Though, Alfred had told me that the only time he seen Bruce scared while he was still Batman, was when he brought me back from the Two-Face Incident and said in a shaky tone that I was dying. I didn't really believe what he told me, because I was heartbroken and numb when Bruce told me that I wasn't going to be Robin anymore after waking me up from a terrible nightmare and then took away what was left of the time I was still happy from my past, which were my memories of my family before Zucco took everything I had away.

I'm now actually seeing what Alfred had tried to make me believe and though it seems like it should be a dream or an illusion, I finally understood that even a most cold-hearted vigilante truly has a heart and can care something more than protecting their cities: Their family, and I am family to the Dark Knight, even when I'm no longer fighting by his side and had cut myself from the Bat-Clan and hero-family, especially when he has my older siblings to help him out in other battles... My mind has changed its mind and my heart suddenly beat harder, but it wasn't pumping with pain. I still yearn for my freedom and I intended to keep it that way, but this will probably be something that I shall do for the last time, for Bruce's sake and the decision from my craving heart.

_'I am sorry, my family, but I can't turn over and die... At least, not yet.' _That was my last thought before I chose to take action.

* * *

**Bruce's POV**  
I've found him... After two years on vanishing without a trace and seven months since we've last seen him in Gotham before he found out about the tracer, I finally found my son... And what I find was both the most amazing, but also the most startling and heartbroken sight I ever seen and wish to never see the day for so long.

The last time we saw him, his costume was a simple black-suit with a grey-chest area that was a bullet-proof vest and a blue-bird over his chest, along with a domino-mask with whitish-blue lenses that could perfectly match the moon when its white image were to mix with blue... Almost like his Cerulean/Sapphire-eyes, and a utility-belt that almost looks like a mixture on what soldiers would wear while in a battlefield and hang-sided belts what females would wear to add more fashion to their clothes.

Now, as I parked the Batmobile in an alley and climbed myself a roof across the Shocking Eel, I saw he has changed his choice of costume: His suit is now just a simple black-suit, with the shirt being the only material to have Kevlar but not enough to protect him from close range shots, and the bird is now red instead of blue. He doesn't have his utility-belt, but that didn't mean he was completely defenseless or have any choice of weapons to use in battle; he still has his Escrima Sticks, and his gloves seems to have upgraded into having spikes on the side.

Not only has he changed his costume, but his figure has also changed: He seems to have grown a few inches, though he still appears to be fourteen instead the of age of sixteen he's in. The bangs of his hair seemed to have grown a bit, since the right-side of his hair looks to be long enough to cover his right-eye, and the back of his hair almost reach past the back of his shoulders. I can also tell that he lost weight, and I mean _a lot_ of weight, though he seems to have grown a few muscles and has most likely increased his strength, even when he seems to be skinny and light.

I couldn't believe the changes Dick has done to himself and though he seems to be doing well on surviving out here in Blüdhaven, I can tell that his time here has taken a very heavy toll on him and his health: From afar and even in the rain, his hair looks to be very greasy, which indicates that he hasn't bathe in a good while. His skinny appearance also tells me that he barely eaten any food... But the two evidence that shows he's not in perfect health to be here at all, are his chest heaving deeply and heavily for air and his face flushed red, telling me that he's terribly ill.

I knew right then and there that I have to get my son out of this fight and immediately get him home, A.S.A.P.; his health isn't as strong as my own at the moment, though his health has never been close to mine to begin with, thanks to the few health problems he had from the time he was born, and in his weaken state, he's made as an easy target for the three shooters from the Dragon Slayers Gang. Right before I could haul myself on the side-wall of the roof and prepare myself to jump on down to the fight, I immediately took notice of the three men Dick is fighting; they were not only wanted criminals in Blüdhaven, but also in Gotham City, Metropolis City, and even both Star and Central City.

It took me a while to collect all the data, since they would be at Gotham for a moment and then leave the city for months until they would decide to comeback to cause more trouble in my city, but I finally gotten all the information and names on who were part of the gang. I still remember each Dragon Slayers' alias' and their back-stories, including the three men my son is facing and fighting:

The first guy Dick knocked out is named 'Almas Amparo'; whose known as 'Under-Link' in the gang. He's twenty-three years old, 5'7 1/2", tan skin, thin-shoulder length black-hair and brown green-speck eyes.  
His crime is hacking into security videos, disconnecting alarms, and stealing from whatever store he hits.  
Both his parents left him on the street at the age of ten and since then, he became a master thief and learned a couple of tricks on sneaking into building and hiding until the guards are gone. When he reached the age of eighteen, his luck eventually ran out when breaking into a Costco Store in Seattle. He was sentence to three years to the King County Adult Detention, a possible chance of parole in a year and a half if he was willing to change and cease his breaking in.  
It was obviously too much to ask from a very young adult, who was still a teenager, who shows signs of no reason to change the way he is because of his parents' choice on abandoning him as a child. Many of the staff members who had worked with him showed many failed attempts to get through him and worry that once his sentencing was over, he would end up coming right back within a few months or another prison if he were to strike in another state.  
Six months until his final year of sentence would past and right when the judge has agreed to lengthen Almas' sentence, without much of a warning, King County Adult Detention was set on fire. According to what the staff just said, a stranger, who's most likely a random bomber, must've somehow snuck into the building without causing any suspicious to the workers or inmates and implanted bombs on the floors that had the offices of the manager, employees, manager assistant, and secretaries. It took firemen nearly two hours to finally calm the flames and the cops a whole hour to gather all prisoners outside the building; more than half of inmates and staff members badly burnt and injured, but, thank god, nobody was killed in the flames... But there was one missing, and that person is Almas Amparo.  
They searched for Almas for weeks, but they eventually gave up when two months had passed and figured that he already left Seattle for a new state to steal. It turned out Almas had a friend who specializes in bombing and the moment he was free, they both head for Blüdhaven and joined the Dragon Slayers after stealing sixth out of the top high security building of the city without getting caught or captured by the police. From what I found, Almas lacks in fighting and his name isn't that sharp unless his target was in front of him, which makes him easy prey for Dick to take down. Though he lacks in fighting, his hacking almost rivals to Tim's.

The next guy Dick charged at was 'Kran Antolín', 'Sly Rat' in the gang. He's twenty-two years old, 5'6", pinkish-white skin, short dark-brown hair and greyish-blue eyes.  
He's an escaped convict from Buenos Aires from South America; charged for illegal drug-trades, kidnapping girls between the ages five to ten, and attempting murder on his own entire family.  
He's lucky that he hadn't been charged for rape, since he seems to be trying to look for a daughter-figure to have as his own ever since his wife and unborn child died in an accident, and had done no harm to those girls he stolen from their actual family. In fact, it was those girls who convinced their parents to not charge him for any sexual assaults that the grown-ups believe that Kran has done to them.  
Still, even when he has proved to become a perfect father to those kidnapped girls, he was still charged for his drag-trade and attempted murder to his actual family. Because of that, the judge found him guilty and sentenced him to fifteen years of prison, with three years for both drug and family counseling; possible parole if he shows good behavior and not attempt to kidnap anymore children or seeking out to kill his family.  
Unfortunately, instead of doing the classes and improving, he broke out of prison on his third month and with some help from his fellow inmates, he secretly hitched a ride on one of the boats that was delivering some supplies to Gotham and then quickly went to Blüdhaven and joined the Dragon Slayers. He specializes in hiding, gaining attention of his opponents, perfecting aiming to paralyze or slow down his enemies, and playing innocent or dead, which makes him as good as a faker and aimer like Jason and Damian.

The last of the group, who is the leader of the bunch, is Ignazio Tammaro. Though he isn't the actual boss of the gang, his known as 'Mad Dog' and is basically second-in-command of the Dragon Slayers. Twenty-six years old, 5'9", light-tan skin, short-blonde hair and dark-brown eyes.  
His crimes are selling illegal drugs, stealing, murder and slaughtering random people and victims from East St. Louis, Illinois.  
He ran away from home at the age of six for family not understanding him, and was immediately taken into a gang when they noticed how easily he can get past people without being noticed. He was good at his job; always able to steal people's wallets, somehow getting into shops and taking food or drugs with nobody bothering to stop him or not knowing what he's doing until he vanishes through the front doors, but he's mostly enjoys taking lives of others and showing no mercy to whom he's being ordered to kill. When he reached the age of thirteen, he was immediately made second-in-command and head teacher of weapon using to the newbies to the gang.  
At the age of sixteen, he was going to become the next leader of the gang but a gang member, who was really an undercover cop, ratted the whole gang out and in less than half an hour, the whole gang has been shackled in cuffs and were immediately sent to Southwestern Illinois Correctional Center. More than half of the gang members weren't too thrill to where they would be staying and many of them tried to break their bonds, but they eventually gave up... All except for Ignazio Tammaro, who kept resisting to sit still and wouldn't follow the cops' demand to cease his struggling.  
Before they could see it coming, Ignazio kicked down the small window that allowed the crook to see where the cops are driving to and his foot collided with the driver, knocking him out and causing the car to drive out of control. The cop in the passenger seat tried to regain control of the car, but his partner's foot on the gas petal made it difficult for the passenger to get them back on the right-side of the road. When it seems that he was starting to gain control of the call, they crashed through the railing and they tumble down the steep-slope of the highway. Rescuers only found two of the cops, both dead but don't appear to have suffer. As for Ignazio, rescuers believed he got out of the car but had died from blood loss or being eaten by wild animals... They were badly mistaken.  
Three months later, Blüdhaven reported violent slaughtering and epic drug dealers had increased and were able to get one picture of Ignazio shooting at the cops with a Heckler and Koch HK416 Assault Rifle. For ten years, he swore to kill every single person who even takes a single step into the Dragon Slayers' territory, unless he was informed new members coming to the gang and is with that gang member, and he would kill all cops in their sleeps if they ever cross his path.

All three of them were one of the dangerous criminals in other parts in the states and just knowing who they were that my son is facing, my paternal instinct has been thrashing impatiently within my chest and is demanding to drop down and help Dick, and I was on its side and ready to swoop down after witnessing Dick getting shot from behind by Kran Antolín. However, my other side, which was the anger part to what I held in for so long, told me to leave him down there as punishment for leaving us and our family in the first place. I know why Dick left Gotham in the first place and I truly regretted on smothering him, but I was only doing what I saw was the only way to protect him.

I now know that I can't truly cage a bird from its freedom against its will; it'll only thrash harder and fight back until it has opened the door and fly away, most likely to never comeback or return to its owner. I shook my head from that thought; I wasn't Dick's owner, and he isn't my property. He's a human being who deserves the choice, and decision of what he wish to do. However, no matter how mature he is or he claims to be, he's still a minor and is still under my care, which allows me to still make the decision for him and I know the moment he's within my hold, I'm taking him back to Gotham and straight to Alfred and Leslie for treatment.

_***Bang!...***_

I was so lost in thoughts from identifying the three crooks and my realization on how I treated my Little Bird, an echo of a gun and then a scream in the cold stormy air brought me back to reality and caused me to stare heart-stricken scene that I never wanted to see again, not after the Two-Face Incident: I saw my son, forcefully on his knees and with a chain wrapped tightly around his neck, with Ignazio holding him in place and Kran holding an Automatic Handgun, which is aiming for the head of the red-bird on his chest that was where his heart is being held underneath his chest-bone. And with Kran that close, his gun will be able to break through the bone and go through his heart, instantly killing him but have him suffer an unbearable pain before he would pass on to the afterlife...

I could've sworn that my past was flashing before my eyes, flashing to the day to what I've lost, gained, and nearly lost: My parents being shot right in front of me... Joe Chill, with a gun in hand, leaving me with the bodies of my bleeding parents... Watching Dick watch his whole family fall and dying right before his eyes... Taking in Dick at the age of eight, and away from the Juvenile Detention Center... Tony Zucco nearly drowning him and nearly succeeding on leaving me in the darkness once again... Dick becoming Robin, and forming his own team of heroes with Kid Flash, Aqualad, Superboy, and Miss Martian... The Training Simulation going wrong and nearly putting Dick and his friends in a coma... Vandal Savage almost having us kill off our partners by our own hands... Joker shooting Robin and having him fall off a building, almost killing him... Coming home from a Justice League Meeting and finding Jason and Tim mourning, telling me that Dick has ran away from home and don't know where he went... And now, watching another gun pointing itself towards Dick and ready to take him away from me.

I grew afraid from the sight. Me, who's not Bruce Wayne at the moment, but the Dark Knight; who know fear but _should_ have no fear, is afraid. Not for me, but for my son. I may be afraid on losing him, I'm afraid for what's going through and is seeing Death's Door right in front of him. My gloves, made of Kevlar and claw-like metal-nails, dug into the solid brick underneath my hold and caused cracks to form and small pieces to fall with the thundering rain to simply be ignore by the Citizens of Blüdhaven. Again, I was fighting with myself; whether I should swoop down and take care of the three members myself, or if I should wait and see what Nightwing will do to get out of the mess he's in... But nothing happened.

He was doing nothing to get free and I can tell from the look on his face, he wasn't thinking about escaping or how to take care of the Dragon Slayers Gang once he gets out of Ignazio's hold; it was the opposite: He was accepting his fate, allowing the Dragon Slayers to win and allowing death to come with open arms, literally having open arms because of Ignazio holding him still from behind.

I wasn't believing what I'm watching down below; Dick never gives up, even with the odds against him or if he's holding the half-weight of his body.

He was the one who taught me to never give up and it's because of him, I was able to rescue James before James Peake, who's also known as 'The Jazzman', could finish the job on killing James in the hospital for arresting him six years ago from a possible chance on a big steal that would even be Gotham City's Greatest Stealing History. That was when I chose to quit becoming Batman, thinking that the world would be better off without me and I wouldn't put anyone I care in danger next time. It was when Dick told me on what I taught him to never give up and when he chose to go after the Jazzman on his own, that was when I realize the flaw of my decision and if I hadn't gone after the Jazzman, Dick would've most likely been shot by the Jazzman while defending James and Barbara and and taking down the Jazzman on his own. I don't know if he would pull through or not, but I didn't took that chance and nobody else gotten hurt after the cops took the Jazzman to jail. The moment he was gone, our James woke up and that meant he's going to be alright... And I had Dick to thank for saving more than just James and I; he practically saved the whole Citizens of Gotham by a few simple words and a reminder on how we were able to make the impossible become the possible.

More screams were heard from down below, belonging to the crowd surrounding the entrance of the Shocking Eel and the four men attracting their attention, and I knew that their scream is not a good sign. Even from the rain gliding down my cowl and trying to blind my eyes from underneath, my lenses are equipped to see as far as the military's best binoculars can scan and see through a treacherous sandstorm. My eyes watch Kran cock the gun, ready to fire, while Ignazio yanked Dick's head up to the sky... And that was when he noticed me from up here and even though far apart and eyes shielded by lenses, our eyes made contact.

I can tell that he's reading me and my hidden feelings underneath my expressionless face. I'm surprised that he's still able to focus on what's going on, especially in his weak and tired condition from the illness and the possible lack of food. It's obvious that he's using the falling rain to stay hydrated and the cold to keep him awake, but even those two won't last long. His eyes underneath his Domino-Mask seems to have widen while he was reading me, a sign that he's startled to see me with all these emotions while still and out as Batman, but returning to their original size and look as if wondering why I came.

If I were down there with him, with nobody else but just him and me, I would've pulled him against me and tell him why I came to Blüdhaven: **"You are my son, no matter where you are or what you do, and I love you"**. It was always hard for me to tell him how much I care for him or how I feel whenever he's around me or by my side, either if it were in public or in private, and I always regretted on never telling him how much he means to me, just like how much his siblings means to me and how much he now means to them. I would tell Dick how much I want him back home, that I would even beg and plead for him to comeback home and once again have our family whole.

His shocked expression eventually faded away and as much as he could, lowered his head and gaze away from the sky... Away from me. My heart clench from his movement.

Any kind of movement he does, whether it's caused by me or not, it always seems to make my heart have these feelings: Whenever he smiles, especially when he smiles at me and his eyes are towards me, my heart would feel warmth and relief. Whenever he's upset or sick, whether his eyes are towards me or not, and if he turned his gaze away from me, my heart would feel pain and would go heavy, as if it believes that I was the one who caused him to go upset or gotten terribly ill. When he goes angry, however, my heart would have a burning sensation, as if also feeling frustrated, and the only way to get rid of the burning feeling is to take out my anger on somebody... And sadly, it's mostly and is mainly Dick. Despite the words I would say to him, he takes in all the anger I would take out on him, which causes him to go even more angry, but he would always seem relieve whenever my anger is finally out of my heart and then he would force his anger out of his own heart whenever our argument ends with either me or him walking away.

My heart would still aches for all I had done and said to him, but I knew, even when he ran away at the age of fourteen and when he chose to never come by to visit us after the 'Tracker Incident' seven months ago, I would always be able to sense his forgiveness when our fighting would end and even being high up on a rooftop and to this day, I still sense and feel his forgiveness he gave to me. My heart had always accepted his forgiveness, but I didn't want his forgiveness so easily; I wanted to make up for both of our mistakes, which are mostly my own mistakes, and earn back his trust and receive his forgiveness, rather than just accepting his forgiveness when I'd done nothing to earn it in the least.

And right now, this will be the perfect, and may be my last chance to prove to Dick how much I've changed... How much _we_ have changed: The Young Justice Team, the Justice League, and our Bat-Family Team. My anger had now coursed through my entire being, along side with my adrenaline, ready to release immense amount of strength on the two men holding down my son and ready to take him away from me and the world that needs him much more than the Afterlife does. However, right before I could pull out any of my weapons from my utility-belt or even prepare myself to drop down, my body froze and my eyes played a seen that had me fooled when I thought that all hope seems to be lost for Blüdhaven's Champion and my son.

* * *

**Dick's POV  
**I knew I would be good as dead with the false move but I took the risk, just as I always do, and with some help from luck, I forced my hand out from Mad Dog's foot and grabbed for my fallen Escrima Stick. The moment he stumbled and when I ducked, Sly Rat pulled the trigger on his Automatic Handgun and the bullet went straight into Mad Dog's left-shoulder, digging into flesh, stretching apart muscles and possibly even breaking bone. From the small but strong metal damaging a piece of himself, Mad Dog released me and fell to the ground, grabbing hold of his shoulder with his right-hand and cursing his expression from the pain Kran implanted on him. From behind us, the crowd gasped in shock on the sudden stunt I done, but it then turned into sigh of reliefs and they even began to cheer for me.

"Ah! Kran, what the hell?! Urge, you son of a bi-!" Before he could continue his words and had my Escrima Stick in my left-hand, I slipped away from his figure and once I was above him, I whacked him in the head that I honestly believe I heard his skull break from the sudden force of strength I put into that hit. Just like I did to Under-Link, he instantly went limp and unconscious, which leaves me with one more member to take care of. And speaking of Sly Rat, he now has two hands holding the gun, trembling from having to witness his greatest mistake and knowing that he was in for it.

I narrowed my eyes, hidden underneath my red-lenses, down into his greyish-blue eyes, glaring down at what he could've done to me if I didn't let my animal-like instincts take control after making the decision to keep fighting. I'm still pissed off for catching me off guard when I was taking care of Under-Link and I think it was time I return the favor, only with a different kind of taking care of him.

I then twirled my Escrima Stick in my hand, a smirk now placed on my face, as I slowly made my way towards him. I knew he forgotten to reload his gun after shooting a lot of bullets in the air to scare the costumers in the store and before I came down, that when he pulled the trigger, I didn't have to flinch or move a muscle when nothing came out of the gun. He panicked even more, that he turned his eyes away from me and used his left-hand to dig for more bullets for his Automatic Handgun. That was his other big mistake he's going to regret, and that was the same mistake that caused me to have a bullet lodged in my ribs and still leaking the blood out of my body; remove your eyes from your opponents, you're open for an attack that may cost you your life.

Right when his left-hand pulled out a hand full of bullets, with a few of them falling to the wet concrete and some landing on his left-thigh, and struggles to get the bullets in the gun, that was when I ceased my twirling of my Escrima Stick and brought it down on his hand full of bullets. He screamed in pain, tossing the Automatic Handgun aside and grabbing for his now broken and bleeding hand. As I slowly made my steps towards him, Sly Rat grew more and more afraid and tried to crawl away from me as I can.

"N-N-No! P-Please, stay away!" He cried, trying to get his legs to get him to a standing position and run away, but was only able to get himself to a crouch position on shaky legs and fall right down on the concrete. As he went to shift his body to get himself on his hands and knees, I shoved him back on his back and kept my foot on his chest, which also held both of his hands trapped on his chest. "Please, d-don't hurt m-m-me! Show mercy!" My smirk only grew and the pressure I placed on his hands from my right-foot made him struggle less and gasping for breath while in a panic.

"Show mercy to _you_?" I replied, getting my voice to go as deeply as I could, which would surprise anyone to hear how my voice may possibly match his voice. "Now, why should I do that? Huh?" My smirk then wiped itself away from my face and was now replaced with a snarl. "After all you've done to these people?!" I yelled, gesturing with my right-hand towards the crowd around us that had grown quiet and are waiting to see what I'll do to him. "These people did nothing to you, nor did they do anything to deserve whatever cause you and your gang to mercilessly threaten and kill these innocent citizens!" I then bent over, releasing some of the headache and the sickening feeling that still coursed throughout my body, and grabbed for the collar of his shirt. I yanked him up as high as I could, with my foot still keeping him pinned to the ground. I then pulled out part of the chain that drags itself from around my neck with my left-hand, which still held one of my Escrima Sticks. "You went as far as to use violence, and tried whoever you see to torment as a wild animal that needed to either be tamed or put out of its misery... I should be given every right to give you the same treatment that you inflicted on your past victims, the innocent people you threaten to take down by your own hands, and myself." My words struck fear into his heart and he tried to break free but even with me carrying wounds, an illness and lost weight, I kept him perfectly still on the ground. I then released the chain from my grip and brought my stick to his face. "However, I'll spare you that sort of sentencing and give you the save treatment your friends received; the cops will know how to take care of people, like you." Sly Rat seems to have calmed down a bit, though still frightened and scared when he knows what I'm going to do.

"P-Please, N-N-Nightwing! I'll go quietly with the police, I s-swear!" I let loose a low growl, sounding a lot like a wolf would do when ready to attack or knowing when he's being lied to by an enemy wolf from a different pack.

"Sorry, but I'm afraid that I don't trust in what you say, no matter how much you mean it." I then tightened my grip on my Escrima Stick and raised it up high in the air, around the same time a flash of lightning struck in the air. "I'd say 'sweet dreams'… But there aren't any left... For you guys, that is." Before he could try and stop me, I brought down my weapon to his head and that's when he went limp and fell into an unconscious sleep of darkness. The moment he stopped moving and when his eyes closed after turning his head to the right, I knew that the fight is over... For tonight, that is. I released Sly Rat from my hand and my foot, stood up straight that made the burning feeling in my ribs ache even more and the black-spots of tiredness to dance within my field of vision, then turned and made my way to where my other Escrima Stick lays when I had to let go one of my sticks because of Mad Dog strangling me with the chain.

The crowd around me began to cheer and clap for me; praising me with their thanks for saving the costumers of the Shocking Eel and themselves from three members of the Dragon Slayers Gang. My heart slightly settled from the praises I received from the crowd, but my sickness and injuries kept forcing my heart to keep beating faster than its normal pace, thus having more blood to go to waste and exit from the wound of my ribs. Nevertheless, I didn't do or say anything that would alert or frighten the Citizens of Blüdhaven about my condition.

As I bent down to grab it, I heard the pounding of running footsteps coming towards me and the three members of the Dragon Slayers, which are most likely the cops taking the crooks to their cars and getting to either Blüdhaven's Police Department for questioning the moment they wake up before taking them to Blüdhaven's Maximum Prison or to Blüdhaven All Saints Hospital if they don't wake up and question them there once they do. Just when I reached for my grapple gun that I placed within the left-side of my boot, I heard footsteps making their way towards me and then felt a hand on my back.

"Nightwing?" It was a female voice and I knew that it was Sergeant Delaney, from the feeling on my back is too light and gentle to be a male's and her footsteps made lesser noise than the other cops. "Are you okay?" She's usually demanding and acts more like a soldier whenever she's at the Police Department, but will always show concern to someone who injured themselves from protecting innocent people or had overexert themselves to the limit where they would nearly get themselves killed. Her tone sounded a bit shaky, which must be from staring at the chain still wrapped around my neck and the blood coming through the hole of my Kevlar made by the bullet still inside of me.

The rain is doing a great job on washing away as much of the blood that escaped through my wound and by having my shirt go darker to mask the stain, but it was banging a bit too hard on the wound where it would touch the uncovered skin the bullet made a hole to my vest. I bit back a hiss of discomfort, but wasn't able to hold in a grunt when Delaney placed both hand around the hole of my vest. The sudden touch also made my stomach feel sick and I'm pretty certain that if I don't get out of here soon, I'll be vomiting all the water and scraps I was able to find, with a chance of blood to the mixture. Quickly and once I gotten both my Escrima Sticks into their cases, I grabbed for my grapple gun and got to my feet, turning to face her and giving her one of my fake reassuring smiles that's always able to fake everyone, including Bruce and Alfred.

"I'll be alright," I replied. As I spoke, I used my left-hand to pull the chains from my neck over my hand and letting it fall to the ground. "Just a bullet wound and a sore neck, is all. Nothing serious." I knew I spoke the wrong words to her, because her face turned from concern and caring to angry and scared.

"Nothing _Serious_?!" She yelled, gaining part of the crowds' attention and having them cease their clapping to hear what she was yelling about. "You're bleeding! You have a bullet in your ribs! If you don't go to the hospital and get that bullet removed, you're going to get yourself killed!" I already saw the concern looks from some of the citizens and I know that Delaney is only trying to help, but I ignored her choice of words. Besides... I have a _bat problem _to take care of before I try and treat my sick condition.

"Do not worry, Sergeant Delaney. I'll take care of it, okay?" I gently spoke, as I raised my grapple gun up in the air and aimed it towards the Shocking Eel's roof. "It's like I said, 'I'll be alright'." And with that said and knowing that I have to get out of here, I pressed the button and the line of my grapple gun pulled me up, leaving an over-concern Officer Delaney and the cheering of the crowd behind.

Once my feet touched the bricks of the rooftop and when I had my grapple gun in its place within my left-side boot, I let out a sigh of relief from being down there. However, I had to end my relaxing moment and made a quick peek to the other side of the street. Seeing that he was no longer on the building from across, my body went back to a panicking mode and I forced my body into a mad-dash in the rain, knowing that he was on the same rooftop that I was on and the chase between me and Batman has already begun.

* * *

**Bruce's POV  
**Relief coursed through my veins and my heart return to its original beating, though it was faster whenever I was Batman because adrenaline rushing through my systems and given me energy to stay awake. I wasn't too worried about getting cold; my suit absorbs my body heat and release that warm when the outside layer senses the temperature of the air. Even with my suit keeping me warm from the harsh cold, my blood still run colds but my heart swelled with pride from the sight of my son freeing himself. He was able to pull his hand from Ignazio's foot, duck down when Kran pulled the trigger, thus having the bullet dig into Ignazio's shoulder, and getting himself behind him to knock him unconscious.

I knew that his animal-like instincts had kicked in, releasing an extra dose adrenaline to help give him the advantage and to keep fighting. And a good thing, too, because I can tell from body language that his body is going to collapse from being over-used in its weak condition and it'll be harder for Dick to get back to his feet once the adrenaline rush has finished its job.

He then twirled his Escrima Stick in his hand, acting like a pro and showing off like he used to, and slowly made his way towards Kran Antolín, who was cowardly crawling away after shooting his gun that held no more bullets and frantically reaching for more. His mistake was turning his eyes away from Dick and that was when he paid the price on getting a broken-hand from being whacked with the Escrima Sticks. He was no completely unarmed and was begging for Dick to show mercy, but my son knows better than to show mercy to criminals who only say to get out of trouble, especially when that person had harm innocent lives just for fun or willingly following orders from a leader. I couldn't hear what Dick was saying, with the continuous splattering of rain splashing on Earth and the rumbling anger of thunder and lightning, but I can tell that he's giving Kran a few good words on not showing mercy. As he raised his Escrima Stick in the air and with his foot keeping the gang-member in place, that was when the lightning struck again and once it flashed by, Dick brought down his weapon to his prey's head and silenced him to the darkness of his conscious.

He may had done what was the right thing to do, but I clearly see that his strength fading and his energy is barely hanging on by a thread. His sickness and wounds are keeping his heart to keep beating in a faster pace than it should be after the adrenaline rush and if he doesn't get that bullet wound out of him soon, he'll pass out from blood loss and I fear the worse if he goes out on his own and attempts to get the bullet out, himself. As he went to get his other Escrima Stick and while a police officer went to check up on him, I pulled out my grapple gun and swooped to the Shocking Eel's rooftop.

No matter what kind of condition he's in, even if he were asleep, Dick was always on alert and the condition he's in, he'll most likely be on high alert for me. As always, I was right when his grapple gun hooked itself on the ledge of the roof and as the line reeled him up, I quickly hid myself behind the rooftop entry door of the Shocking Eel that will block his view of vision and stayed silence when I heard him now on the same rooftop with me and putting away his grapple gun. I can hear his breathing turning into gasps and groaning in pain, but then went into a relaxing sigh.

He always feels on edge while patrolling or on a mission and never seems to fully relax himself until we're back to the Batcave; he may have been used to people watching him performing death defying stunts, he isn't comfortable people judging him with their gaze because of his age and appearance and having to pretend to be a person who isn't like the rest of the citizens.

He sounded calm and relaxed and I thought it would be the perfect chance to come out and try to talk, but I was wrong when I heard him gasp in a panic; he must've remembered me during his capture, but what he doesn't know is that I've switched rooftops and is already to come out and talk. I stuck my head out to see what was going on, which showed me of Dick staring across the actual rooftop I was just on and whether he saw me or not, he forced his body into a sprint and was already soaring through the sky. I wasn't expecting him to do that, even when he does have a strong will and hidden strength to keep going.

I knew that I had to stop him; this could be my only chance to come face-to-face with him and tell him what I needed to tell him. If I don't, then all my efforts and me coming to Blüdhaven in the first will be put to waste. Once I was on the other side of the rooftop's ledge and saw where Dick is, I spread my cape out, as if they were wings, and glided after him.

* * *

**Dick's POV  
**My heart was screaming. Demanding that I cease my running and go back to Bruce, repair our relationship and become a family. But I can't; I must prove to him that I can't stay with him and that I'm better off here in Blüdhaven than I was back in Gotham. I have to show him that I'm better off without our hero and bat-family... Most of all, I have to show Bruce how much he and everyone else are better off without me and that they don't want anymore mistake to bother them than they already have.

"Dick, wait!" I heard him call out my name and body was more than ready to stop and let myself be captured, but I forced my feet to keep going and had my lungs keep drawing as much oxygen as it can through the cold air. My stomach wasn't helping me at all at the moment; it can't digest the food and water I was able to search for and because I have no medication or had anything to help soothe my ache and illness, it wants me to cease my running and vomit what little I could get. My eyes are already seeing spots of black, even when I've taken in fresh rain water, and if I don't rest up whatever energy I have left in me, I'll most likely black out and it would all be over. Still, no matter what, I wasn't going to quit my attempt of freedom and become the soldier boy Bruce tried to make out of me.

"Dick, stop!" He called out again, sounding much more desperate, but I ignored his cry and kept running and jumping from rooftop to rooftop. I then noticed a line on the right-corner of the rooftop that I'm on, not holding any clothes or clothespin at all. The citizens must've brought their clothes into their homes before the rain it. This could be the perfect chance for me to get those few seconds and get the gliders ready. I didn't want to take the chance and see if Bruce is still after me or not. Once I launched myself over the line, I used the blades on my right-arm to cut the thin but strong wire and gripped it tightly to swing by a building that has a greenhouse on top.

Once I was high enough in the air, I let go of the small cable and pressed both my arms against my sides, activating and hooking the gliders to open. The moment I hit the ground, with my left-hand holding my upper-weight and both my legs getting me to a kneeling position, I felt a jolt of pain from my ribs coursing through me and my stomach made me feel the nausea wanting to come at the moment.

It wasn't the right moment to stop and vomit my stomach out; the moment I landed, I heard a pair of footsteps landing ten inches away from me and I knew it was Bruce. Nevertheless, I lifted my head and saw that it was the Dark Knight. I didn't see his face, only his figure, and that was enough to get me back to my feet and launch myself off the ledge. I knew that it wasn't good for me to keep moving, but I had to spread both my arms out to have the gliders do their things and shift myself to the left or right to which way I need to go.

I honestly thought that I was safe from Bruce, even if he were to pull out his grapple gun to try and catch me, but I wasn't expecting him to do this: Without me seeing if he would follow, he ran after me and the moment I gotten enough altitude to lift me in the sky, he launched himself in the air and grabbed for me. He had both arms wrapped around my shoulders and over my neck, making it hard for me to breathe and because it was feeling like Mad Dog is strangling me again, I panicked and like a wild bird, I tried shaking him off while trying to regain my altitude.

"Dick, calm down!" He commanded me, his grip around my neck tightening and making me panic even more and that's when I tried to ram him into the walls to force him off my back. I know that his suit has a much more stronger Kevlar and a higher defense than me, but even he shouldn't be able to withstand so much ramming and that should be enough to get him to release me. Sadly, I forgotten how much stronger he his than I and in my ill condition, he's much more stronger and with his own weight and strength, he unwrapped his arms from around my neck and placed his hands on my shoulders. "I'm sorry, Dick, but I have to end this!" He then clenched his grip onto my shoulders and then forced me to turn to the right, where he was leading us towards Blüdhaven's Church.

I tried to regain control in the air and shake Bruce off of my back, but it was a futile attempt to break free from the Dark Knight, himself. I also noticed that we were coming in on the roof of the church a bit too fast and that we needed to slow down if we wanted to have a perfect landing. I then thought up an idea, an idea that was both crazy and stupid, but might be able to work and free me from his hold. I turned my head to gaze up at him, who was busy keeping his eyes to our destination.

"I'm sorry, too, Batman... Because I'm going to be the one who's ending this!" And with that said, I twisted myself to the right, thus catching Bruce off guard when I had ceased my struggling attempt to break free, and rammed him to another wall. His grip seemed to have lightened a bit, but they stayed firm and aren't going to let go. I then pulled my arms back as far as I could underneath his grip and had us heading straight down, missing our landing spot and towards the wall of the church. I can feel Bruce growing more impatient by my efforts.

"Damn it, Dick!" He cursed, forcing himself to take matter into his own hands once again. I knew that he would put out his grapple gun to stop my attempt to break us apart and when he had us going back up towards the rooftop of Blüdhaven's Church, with his left-arm folded in front of my chest and keeping a death grip on me but just for safe precaution, I grabbed at his arm with both of my hands and twisted and turned us that eventually had me in front of the sky and his back heading to be slammed against the coming wall. He didn't have enough time to shift into a different position and before he could even try to even twist, he arched his back from the sudden slam of the wall and his grip around my shoulders lessen.

The moment I grabbed a hold of the ledge, I scrambled out of his hold and gotten myself over the ledge. I landed on my left-side and grunted in pain from my wound making contact with the hard surface of the roof, but I quickly brushed it off and pushed myself to get back to my feet and keep running. However, instead of listening to me and have already reached its peak, my legs collapsed and forced me to fall to the ground. My arms prevented me from landing face-first to the ground and were able to get me to get to a crouching position, but my legs refused to let me stand and take off. I groaned in annoyance and quickly reached for my grapple gun. I aimed it at the highest point of the church's rooftop and was about to release the hook to grab the pole, but something quick and black went by and forced my hand to release the grapple gun. I turned to my left and saw that it was a Batarang that went passed me and is now holding my grapple gun in place and on the ground.

I didn't have a spare with me; they were all back at my beat down home and because I haven't broken any of the three grapple guns yet, I didn't think that I would be needing any of them... But I was wrong and I wish that I had been prepared to have taken one or even all three of them with me at the moment.

I heard grunts coming from the ledge that I'd pulled myself over from and as I turned to my right, I watch Bruce pulling himself over the ledge, while putting away his own grapple gun, and landing on his right-side. Though I was halfway across the rooftop, I could hear and see Bruce trying to catch his breath and could see him having some difficulties getting to his feet. It didn't take long for him to finally catch his breath in the rain and with the help from the ledge, he placed both hands on the concrete material and was soon back on his feet, with his back towards me.

I had hope to take the chance to crawl towards the Batarang that held my grapple gun capture and get myself over the other ledge to continue on my escape. My arms are too tired to be used again and because of his continuous tightening on my shoulders, it would be hard for me to steer on my own and would most likely crash myself down the next block or two...

I knew I was trapped and there was nowhere for me to go and because of that realization, I finally allowed myself and my body to cease running and stayed where I half laid and half sat up. It felt like hours since he had his back towards me, but had only been two minutes, until he finally turned away from the wall and stared down at me, ready to do what he'd wanted to do.

* * *

**Bruce's POV  
**Why must he always do this to himself? These are one of those moments where I wonder why Dick has to act like he needs to push himself harder than his body can withstand, especially when he's already passed himself beyond his limits. That's just how Dick keeps on going, he keeps pushing himself to get stronger and is somehow able to draw some hidden strength to keep moving. And at the moment, that's what he's doing right now. Pushing himself to keep on going, and getting as far away as he can from me.

My heart clench from Dick trying to get away from me, as if I were a monster planning on eating him instead of a father only wanting to have his Little Bird safe in his arms and bring him back to our safe home in Gotham.

"Dick, wait!" I hollered out, hoping that my voice would reach him through the growling sound of angry thunder and treacherous lightning and calm him once he realize that I'm not angry at him or is angry at the moment. However, my words fell on deaf ears and he seems to have forced himself to go faster. My worry grew even more with every leap and step Dick took; every time he lands, he would stumble a bit from overuse of muscles and before he leaps to the next building, his legs would tremble and his breathing would turn into quivering gasps for breath.

I found myself getting higher behind Dick, while he seems to be getting lower behind the walls of the buildings. I eventually found myself on top of a water tower, my arms aching from being stretched while gliding in the air but are still ready to help me get my son.

"Dick, stop!" I called out again, with the wind carrying out my message to my distraught son. I then noticed that he was heading for a building that has a greenhouse on top, but the building was much too high for him to jump across and if he were to try and scale it, then he's in a terrible state of exhaustion and could most likely fall if his grip were to lessen for even the smallest second of rest. I aimed my grapple gun towards the building and zip line myself to the rooftop, preparing myself to let go at the right moment to get on the ledge and aim the grapple gun towards my son the moment he falls.

He did launch himself off the roof, but instead of falling, his right-arm seemed to have sliced itself through what I had to guess is a cable or line and was then swooping up towards the building and the moment he let go, he made a harsh landing on the roof. After two seconds he had landed, I released the cable from the building's wall and landed ten inches away from him. I thought this would be the perfect place for us to talk, but it didn't take long for me to noticed a pair of gliders hanging from underneath his arms. That's when I knew why he wanted to land on this building instead of the one beside the roof he was on before and before I could try and get a single word out, he forced himself to run and launched himself off the ledge.

I ran to where he gotten himself off and watched him gliding in the air heading towards the direction near the Shocking Eel but not directly back to the shop. I know that I had to get him now and once I had my cape ready to carry me, I glided after Dick. I gained up after him quicker than I did while on foot, because Dick seems to be having trouble keeping himself steady and is still gathering more altitude to keep a steady and easy flight for him to stay in the air and to be able to turn without having to hit any buildings. The sickness is still getting to him and I couldn't be more glad that it's making things hard for him to concentrate, because I was soon above him in around eleven seconds and in four seconds, I closed my cape down to charge down and soon had my arms wrapped around Dick's neck.

I couldn't wrap my around around his midsection, because I heard Sergeant Delaney shouting at him while on top of the Shocking Eel and even said that he's been shot in the rib-area. I also noticed that there was a small hole in his left-side that revealed skin and blood still flowing away from the wound. Besides, his gliders are from underneath his arms to his hip and if my arms wrapped themselves over them, we'll be falling more than 100 mph towards the ground and there wouldn't be anytime for me to grab for my grapple gun or to spread my wings to hover when I need to keep my grip on Dick.

And speaking of Dick, he wasn't too thrill or calm when I grabbed for him and before I could try and speak to him again, he went into a panic mode and began thrashing within my hold.

"Dick, calm down!" I ordered him; knowing that if he tries to fights me, he'll not only further injure himself but will also lose altitude and may end up having us crashing towards buildings while trying to get me off of him. Unfortunately, and because in his panicking state, he started ramming me into walls to get me off of him. I knew now that he's growing more desperate to get away from me more than ever, and may have forgotten that my suit is much more stronger than his to withstand almost all of the impact on ramming me into the walls.

I had to look for a building for us to land to, and fast. Luckily, I was able to find a church coming on our right, which was low enough for us to land and was more than big enough for us to be on. Despite knowing that it was the only way to get to safety, my heart still bang heavily when I unwrapped my arms around Dick's neck and clench my hands onto his shoulders to force him to steer into the direction I needed to get us to.

"I'm sorry, Dick, but I have to end this!" I know that my words, especially my apology, wouldn't be enough to help calm him and the more he tried to get me off of him, the tighter my hands clench and the more scared Dick grew. I hated to do this to my son, but I had to do this if I'm ever going to have us talk and try to make up.

He eventually quit thrashing and I honestly thought he realized that I was helping, that I began to loosen my hold on his shoulder. Too bad that I forgotten how much of a trickster he is and because of my carelessness, he caught me off guard.

"I'm sorry, too, Batman... Because I'm going to be the one who's ending this!" He finally spoke to me, but his words told me that he wasn't going to negotiate with me when he said those words. I now regretted on loosening my grip, because he then twisted to the right and rammed me into another wall, that almost made me let go of him and setting him free. I'm glad that I had claws installed for my gloves, because if I didn't have any, I would've most likely let him go and would have to chase him in the air again. My hands stayed firm on his shoulders, but I wasn't predicting Dick to do something like this: He deliberately pulled his arms back and was heading down below the church's rooftop.

My patients was growing more weary the more he tries to get away from me, but having to do something so stupid was really getting on my nerves. He may have always done dangerous stunts at the age of five and during his time as Robin, but he had never done something that would involve the two of us getting hurt instead of just himself.

"Damn it, Dick!" I cursed out, watching as the church's walls and colored windows grew bigger and closer to us. I quickly wrapped my left-arm over and around his chest and arms, keeping him within my death grip and preventing him from trying to bring the gliders out, while I pulled out my grapple gun from my utility-belt with my right and shot the hook up on the ledge of the rooftop. We stopped heading straight towards the wall and are now being pulled horizontally up.

I wasn't going to give Dick the chance to free himself, that I made sure that my grip wasn't going to loosen again and pulled him in tighter against me... I can still feel how small he is compared to me, even when he's more likely to nearly be three foot shorter than me, but his weight was a startling discovering; he weighed less, much less to not even be close to anywhere near the right weight for a sixteen year-old to be in. I know that he'd always been small and weighed less when he was eight years old and when he grew into his teen years, and he still looks to be the same thirteen or fourteen year-old I had raised for six years. I may not be a doctor like Leslie but if I were to weigh Dick, he would be somewhere within the 80's at best. I just hope that she and Alfred, along with the rest of Dick's siblings from home and Mount Justice, could help us get him back in shape and at the right weight once he's back home.

I was so convinced that he wouldn't try and pull another fast one on me, because of my arm keeping him in place, that I didn't think that he would try and do another attempt to get away... Once again, he proved me wrong. He grabbed for my arm with both of his hands and that's when he turned to switch position with us: He was now on top and facing the black-sky, while I'm below him with my back facing the wall that was coming in on us the closer we gotten to the ledge of the church's rooftop. I didn't have enough time to try and switch us back to our actual position and before I could get my grapple gun to slow down or to stop, my back rammed into the wall that made me arch it up from having to feel it like Bane broke my back, again.

The sudden jolt of the pressure made my left-arm loosen on Dick and the moment he was able to grab for the ledge above us, he scrambled away from me and gotten over the ledge to be on the roof of the church. I heard him grunt from the other side of the ledge, which meant he most likely landed on his injured side and his wound touched the hard material of the building. My hand holding the grapple gun tightened and once I swung my left-hand to grab for the ledge, I pulled myself up and put away my grapple gun to hang on to my utility-belt to my left-side. I only gotten the upper-part of my body up and was about to get my left-leg on the ledge as well, when I saw that Dick was trying to make another run for it.

I swear, I wonder how he gotten my stubbornness, when he wasn't born by my blood. Hell, I always wonder how and why he looks a lot like me and is becoming more and more like me, when I had never Mary Grayson in all my life until the day she and the rest of the Flying Grayson fell to their deaths. If he were adopted by the Graysons and Talia had kept him a secret from me, too, I would most likely be scanning for DNA on every child with raven-black hair and Cerulean/Sapphire or Navy-blue eyes who would look like either me and/or Talia.

Dick's legs, rather then doing what his brain is commanding them to do, they kept on collapsing and falling to their knees whenever Dick tries to get himself to a sprint. His arms would shake whenever they would catch him falling flat-down on his face and if he were to try and crawl towards the other side of the rooftop, they would most likely drop down like lead and then he would have to use his elbows to get him going.

After collapsing to the ground for the sixth time, getting to where his legs were shaking and laying on the ground and both his arms holding him up as high as they could, he reached for his left-boot with his left-hand and pulled out one of his old grapple guns that he used as Robin and had most likely brought with him the night he ran away. He aimed the grapple gun towards the tallest point of the church's rooftop, which was where a white-pole stood out strong and proud in the pouring and cold Winter rain, and I knew that he was going to try and get to higher ground and try to fly away, again. With my right-arm and left-leg keeping me on the ledge, I used my left-hand to grab for a Batarang from one of the pouch of my utility-belt and tossed it towards Dick's hand that was about to release the hook of the grapple gun. I made sure that the Batarang wouldn't hurt him, but would force his hand to let go of the grapple gun and hold it down on the ground.

He stared completely startled at the Batarang coming out of nowhere and taking away his possible last escape plan, that he didn't make a sudden movement to head for the other side of the rooftop and pull the weapon away from his grapple gun. Completely certain that he knows that he can't escape from me this time and had allowed his body to stop, I pulled the rest of my body over the ledge and ended up landing on my right-side on the roof. I grunt a bit from feeling hard concrete underneath my Kevlar suit; my backside is still aching from the sudden slam against the wall, but it'll recover within a few days of rest and a hot bath or shower.

I needed to catch my breath for a moment and I was having trouble getting to my feet on my own, but I eventually caught the breath that I needed and used the ledge to help me back up to stand... I'm now completely scare on what I should do now. Usually, when he disobeys and tries to run from me, I would yell and scold him for doing something completely stupid and that he needs to learn to follow my demands. But now, with him trying to fight back for his freedom and pushing himself pass beyond the limits and nearly getting himself killed multiple times in a few hours in one night, I knew that I would have to approach him carefully and try to speak as calmly as I can. Though it may seem stupid and ridiculous that I'll be treating and approaching Dick as if he were a wild animal that needed to be tamed, but if I made one sudden movement that would set off the wrong sign, he'll either try and fight back or would struggle and get away.

After two minutes has gone by and when I didn't hear any movement that told me he's going to escape from me, I finally turned to face him and I knew that I we needed to settle this problem, once and for all. If I still can't get him see reason and come home with me, I'll have no choice but to take drastic measure for a last resort.

* * *

I just made up 'Kran', and Antolín is Spanish. Almas Amparo is Portuguese, and Ignazio Tammaro is Italian.

Also, on the third or forth week of May, I'll be giving my laptop back to the school. In other worlds, I'll most likely not be on the Internet or Fanfiction until I have to wait and head for a family member's house, get a new home computer, or when I get my own laptop. But, don't worry, I will continue on writing stories and update as much as I can, even when I'm not online. And hey, if I typed up a lot of stories (though I'll most likely be looking for a job) and once I'm on a computer/laptop, I'll update a bunch of at the same time! Though, I'm still hoping that my grandma gets me the laptop she said she would get.

R&R


End file.
